Before They Bloomed
by Emmy Award
Summary: A Marauder fic, but not really lily/james (not yet anyway) unless you count the fact that Lily currently hates James, but it's still original, i promise. PG-13 for language only. Starts in the last term of their 5th year. Please R/R *CHAPTER 8 UP*
1. How to Follow Lily and James Without Bei...

****

Before They Bloomed ~ Chapter One

Midnight Wanders  
  
  
  
  
_You can try to resist  
  
Try to hide from my kiss  
  
But you know, but you know that you  
  
Can't fight the moonlight.  
  
Deep in the dark  
  
You surrender your heart  
  
But you know, but you know that you  
  
Can't fight the moonlight.  
  
No, you can't fight it  
  
It's gonna get to your heart_

****

LeAnn Rimes - 'Can't fight the moonlight'  
  


Isobelle Harris, Elizabeth Parker (better known as Ellie), Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew watched their friends Lily Evans and James Potter talking and laughing in the hallway ahead of them.

'They are _so_ meant for each other,' Isobelle muttered into Remus' ear. 'Why does she think that he's a jerk?'

'Mmm,' Remus said.

'Remus are you listening to me?' Isobelle demanded.

'Kind of,' Remus admitted.

'He doesn't really have to listen,' Ellie put in. 'He already knows what you're going to say. We all do. And we all agree.'

'Yeah,' Sirius said.

'Huh?' Peter asked.

'So what are we going to do about it?' Isobelle asked, not hearing Peter. 'There must be something we can do, some way to set them up.'

'Well, you're talking to the right guys,' Sirius said in his salesman voice. 'If anyone can come up with a plan, we can.' Remus and Peter nodded enthusiastically.

'Oh God here we go,' Ellie groaned.

'Have some faith,' Remus said. 'We can do this.'

'So they won't need psychiatric help when you're finished with them?' Isobelle asked sceptically.

Sirius shrugged. 'Hopefully not, but you can never tell with two people who are already nutcases anyway.'

'Oh I should never have mentioned it,' Isobelle muttered.

Sirius clapped her on the shoulder. 'On the contrary! You've given me a whole new outlook on life! A way to help my fellow friends! A way to exercise my cunning, my daring, my brilliance while at the same time, helping my dear friend James get his love life back together. You realise he hasn't had a girlfriend since he split up with Beth four months ago?'

Ellie stared at him. 'Sirius, are you on something?' she asked, wrinkling her nose.

'Nothing except pure and fresh oxygen!' Sirius crowed. 'Oh and of course the sheer joy of having Defence Against the Dark Arts next!' He danced up the hallway, Remus and Peter following him.

'Yep he's on something,' Isobelle agreed, watching him go. 'Something _very_ strong.'

James was sitting in Potions, but he wasn't hearing a word Professor Battistel was saying. He was kind of staring at Lily instead. You see, he had realised recently that he had a rather large crush on Lily Evans and this was causing him to be, putting it kindly, rather spaced out.

It also had him feeling a bit strange, as he had never had a real crush on anyone in his life. He was used to girls having crushes on _him_, not the other way around, and he'd gained the reputation of being a bit of a ladies man. But that had stopped when he'd realised that he'd fallen for the ultimate ice queen of the school.

Oh, Lily was nice, but the minute a guy expressed any interest in her, she froze them out completely. Of course, that was usually because all the sleazebags (like James) were expressing interest. And then there was that red hair. She definitely had a temper to match. A weird temper. She'd slapped Sirius when he'd asked her out (but that was probably because of a few degrading comments on his part) but the next day acted as if nothing had happened.

So what could he do? He didn't know. He just stared at Lily.

Beside him, Sirius began to get an idea.

'Lily, I think James has the hots for you,' Ellie whispered.

Lily turned and saw James staring at her. When he saw her look, he quickly turned to his book and acted as if he was working.

'See?' Ellie whispered again. 'So what so you think?'

'Oh, I don't know,' Lily said. 'I don't reckon he likes me anyway. I heard he was going out with Michelle Reid.'

'He's not,' Ellie said. 'Sirius told me he hasn't gone out with anyone since he dumped Beth.'

Lily turned and looked at her friend with disbelief. 'You kidding me?'

Ellie shook her head. 'Nope. I'm dead serious. So what do you think about him?'

Lily thought for a moment. 'Oh, he's nice. I thought he'd be a real sleazebag, you know with being a Quidditch star and having so many girls in love with him, but he's not. He's pretty interesting.'

'Sounds like James isn't the only one with a crush on someone,' Ellie said teasingly.

Lily swatted at her. 'Get out of here. He's just a friend.'

'Yeah, whatever,' Ellie said in a tone that meant clearly she wasn't convinced.

Lily sighed and went back to work. 

Beside her, Ellie began to get an idea.

'I have an idea!' Sirius and Ellie exclaimed in unison.

'_Do_ enlighten us,' Remus said.

'Yes, we'd simply _love_ to hear,' Isobelle said. 

Ellie and Sirius raised their eyebrows, but said nothing.

'Ellie, you go first,' Sirius said.

'OK,' Ellie said, selecting a comfy chair in their corner of the common room.

'Wait,' Peter said. 'What if Lily and James come?'

'James is on detention and Lily's in the library doing her Potions homework that was due yesterday,' Isobelle said.

'Ahem,' Ellie said. 'May I continue?'

'Sorry,' Peter and Isobelle muttered.

'So you should be,' Ellie said archly. 'Anyway, what I was going to say was this. In Potions today, I noticed that James was staring at Lily the whole lesson.'

'Yeah, I noticed that too,' Sirius said. 'He didn't do any work. Just stared at her.'

'He was?' Isobelle said. 'How did I miss that?'

'Possibly because you were writing a letter to your penpal in Australia, saying how boring Potions is,' Ellie said dryly. 'So, anyway, I got the idea to talk to Lily about him. And she doesn't think he's a jerk like we thought. She actually thinks he's a nice guy. And since James is obviously besotted with her, we should just think of some way to get them alone together.'

'And this is where I come in,' Sirius said. 'See, I had my eyes open in Potions too. I don't know where everyone else's were but I noticed all the same stuff Ellie did. So I came up with this; get Lily and James to go for a walk around the lake in the moonlight.' 

'Oh, Sirius, I never knew you were such a romantic,' Isobelle crooned.

Sirius ignore her. 'I'm a genius, no?'

'No,' Ellie said. 'But it's an all right plan.'

Sirius looked hurt. '_All right?_ Ellie, this plan is _fanbloodytastic!_ It's the best plan ever!' Seeing Ellie, Isobelle, Remus and Peter raise their eyebrows, he decided to spell things out for them. 'Think about it! Ellie, Isobelle, you send Lily for a walk around the lake. Tell her it'll help her think. Then, Remus, Peter and I'll think of some excuse to get James out of there and then they run into each other down there and they talk for a bit. Eventually, the moonlight works on them and they kiss and they realise how madly in love they are and they live happily ever after.'

Sirius could see Remus, Isobelle and even Peter nodding, but Ellie was the sceptic, as always.

'That'll work?' she asked, disbelieving. 'If it does happen, they'll deny it. You know that.'

'Ah, but I haven't mentioned the best part,' Sirius said craftily. 'We go after them and we take a camera, so when they kiss we capture it forever, and they can show it to their grandchildren. Plus, I thought it'd be good blackmail material.'

'You know that that's a huge invasion of privacy,' Ellie began,

'Oh great, a lesson on morality,' Sirius groaned.

'but I like it,' Ellie finished.

Sirius stared at her. 'You serious?'

'No, I thought that was you,' Ellie said grinning.

Sirius groaned. 'Remus, Isobelle, Peter, tell me she didn't get me with that. Please.'

'All right, I won't,' Remus said.

'But she did get you,' Isobelle added. 

Ellie clapped him on the shoulder. 'Face facts buddy.'

'Oh I hate you,' Sirius groaned.

'No you don't, you just hate what I do,' Ellie said grinning. 'Come on, let's get this plan together. When are we doing it?'

'Why not tonight?' Isobelle suggested.

They all looked at each other. 'Why not?' Ellie asked. 'There's enough time.'

'All right, tonight it is then,' Sirius said. 'Come in a bit closer, will you, I don't want anyone to hear all the finer details of the plan, just in case someone warns Lily and James.'

The others groaned but agreed. Hey, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

Five hours later, Lily and James were walking along the shore of the lake, though both at different sides. But it wasn't destined to stay like this for long, as James had just caught sight of Lily and was quickly making his way towards her.

'Lily!' he called.

'James,' she said as she turned around. 'Hi. What are you doing here?'

'Walking,' James said grinning. 'What are you doing here?'

'Walking,' she said. 'And thinking. It's kind of hard to do that in the dorm. Too noisy.'

'Yeah, I know what you mean,' James said. 'Sharing a dorm with Sirius isn't exactly quiet.'

'I can imagine,' Lily said laughing. James laughed too, neither of them aware of the four people who were carefully following their progress.

'Ow!' Sirius moaned when he scratched his hand on a thorn.  
  
'Shh!' was the immediate response from Remus, Ellie and Isobelle (Peter was asleep and when they'd tried to wake him up, he'd muttered something about a pony ride, so they'd thought it best to let him sleep).  
  
'Gee, great friends you are,' he grumbled.  
  
'Sirius, be quiet,' Ellie said brushing a branch out of the way. It hit Isobelle in the face.  
  
'Ow El, that hurt,' she said, rubbing her face.   
  
'Oh, sorry, Iz, I didn't mean to do that.'  
  
'Hey, how come you don't get mad at her for talking?' Sirius complained.  
  
'Sirius, do us a favour, and shut up,' Isobelle said.  
  
'Shh,' Remus said. 'They've stopped walking.'  
  
'Yay! Time for the action,' Sirius said with a sly grin. 'Izzy, have you got the camera?'  
  
'Oh shit!' Isobelle said, clapping her hand to her head. The others stared at her.  
  
'You didn't forget it did you?' Sirius finally whispered.  
  
Isobelle grinned. 'Course not,' she said, holding up the camera. 'As if I'd forget the camera.'  
  
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and sat down to wait.  
  
Five minutes later, they were still waiting and Sirius was getting bored.  
  
'What can they possibly be talking about? They've already talked about Quidditch, jokes and how much they hate Snape,' Sirius (yet again) complained.  
  
'You know, Sirius, just because that's all you ever talk about, doesn't mean that's all Lily and James talk about,' Isobelle said, trying to keep a straight face.  
  
'Oh, Sirius talks about other things,' Remus said teasingly. 

'Like what?' Isobelle challenged.

'Ah … I'll get back to you on that,' Remus said sheepishly.

'I talk about girls,' Sirius offered.

'As if that's much better,' Isobelle said. 'When you talk about girls, it's always about which one you've dumped and which one you're going for next.'   
  
'As much as I hate to interrupt this lovely little chat, I think they're going for it,' Ellie said. 'Got the camera ready, Izzy?'  
  
'You bet.'  


  
Lily stared into James' deep brown eyes. James stared into her bright green ones. Slowly, James started lowering his face to hers...  
  
Lily couldn't think. Did she want this to happen? What would kissing him achieve? Absolutely nothing as far as she could see. Did she even want to kiss him? Besides, she didn't need these kind of complications right now.  
  
She pulled away.  
  
And ran.  
  
James stood still for a moment, in shock, Sirius said later (well, no girl had never ran away from him before, had they?), and then he ran after her.  


Back in the bushes, everyone was less than impressed.  
  
'_Noooooooo_,' Isobelle groaned. 'How _dumb_ can you get!'  
  
'Stupid, stupid, _stupid_!' Ellie kept repeating.  
  
'Bloody _typical_,' Sirius complained. 'We go and spend two hours of valuable sleeping time crawling around the bushes risking our lives against the God-awful creatures in the forest, waiting for them to do something of blackmail-worthy material, so we can make their lives hell. And what do they do? Absolutely bloody nothing! They couldn't even manage one measly little kiss!'  
  
'Hopeless,' Remus said wearily. 'Completely hopeless.'  
  
'Moony, I would have to agree with you.' Sirius sighed again. 'Come on, let's go back.'  


  


Lily ran up the stars to her dormitory, and accidentally slammed the door. She bit her lip, hoping that she hadn't woken anyone up, but nobody made any sign of being disturbed. She breathed a sigh if relief and flopped on to her bed.  
  
Why had she done that? Why the hell had she done that? She didn't know.  
  
Her thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of Ellie and Isobelle, who were trying to be quiet, but failing miserably.  
  
'I still can't believe she did that!' Ellie was saying.  
  
'I know! They're both completely hopeless,' Isobelle answered.  
  
'What were you guys doing?' Lily asked.  
  
Both the girls looked at her in shock. They hadn't expected her to be there; they thought she'd go somewhere to think for awhile.  
  
'Uh, well, we, um, went for a walk, yeah we went for a walk!' Isobelle said quickly.  
  
'Yeah, and um, we're going to bed now, so 'night!' Ellie said brightly, and both the girls quickly retreated to their beds on the other side of the room.

__

Why do I get the feeling they're not telling me something? Lily thought to herself.  


  
Lily was sitting in Transfiguration, completely bored out of her brain. She really couldn't see the point of turning a desk into a pig. She hated pigs anyway.  
  
She decided to write a letter. To James.  


  
James was also bored out of his brain, though for a different reason, as he'd finished his work. In any other class, he would have been mucking around with Sirius, but seeing as Professor McGonagall had banned them from sitting together, it wasn't exactly an option.  
  
'James,' Isobelle hissed. 'Note.' She slipped it onto his desk.  
  
James looked up at the front of the classroom, where Professor McGonagall was watching both him and Sirius very carefully, and decided not to read the note, as the professor had a very annoying habit of reading notes such as the one he had in his hand to the rest of the class, and he really didn't want that to happen.  
  
Instead, he shoved it into his bag.  
  
Lily, who had been watching with apprehension, groaned.  
  
She went to chew her nails, then realised she had none left to chew. Toenails? Uh-uh, no way, too disgusting, and sort of hard in Tansfiguration. OK, what about hair? She experimented, and spat it right back out again. Hair did not taste good.  
  
She stared at her fingernails (or what was left of them). Why wouldn't they grow faster?  
  
She sighed as McGonagall glared at her for not working, and started studying her complicated notes. What was the point of Transfiguration?  


  
After class, Isobelle caught up with James.  
  
'Hey Jamie-boy, how're you going?'  
  
'Isobelle, do you know how annoying I find that name?' James asked.  
  
'Yes, very. So, the letter.' She studied James very carefully. 'What'd you do to get Queen Lil to write to you, huh?'  
  
James turned red. 'I haven't exactly read it yet.'  
  
Isobelle laughed. 'Whatever. Bet it's got something to do with a certain midnight wander last night,' she said slyly.  
  
'How'd you know about that?' James asked suspiciously.  
  
'I have my sources,' Isobelle said mysteriously.  
  
'Bollocks. You followed us, didn't you? You, Ellie, Remus, Sirius and Peter. You guys followed us.' James sighed.  
  
'Actually, Peter wasn't with us, he wouldn't wake up,' Isobelle said.  
  
'Geez, what does a guy have to do for a bit of privacy round here?' James asked the nearest suit of armour.  
  
'What're you talking to a suit of armour for James?' Caitlin McIntyre, a Ravenclaw with the biggest crush ever on James, asked sweetly.  
  
'It's the best friend he can get,' Isobelle replied. 'He's not exactly happy with us at the moment. We sort of followed him on a midnight stroll last night, and he calls that an invasion of privacy. Honestly, some people.'  
  
Isobelle shook her head as she walked off.  
  
'Sorry,' James said to Caitlin. 'She's kinda whacked up this morning, she ate a lot of chocolate to stay awake, plus I'm positive those girls have a supply of coffee somewhere.'  
  
'Oh?' Caitlin said politely. 'I was under the impression she was always like that.'  
  
'Actually, come to think of it,' James said, scratching his head, 'she is. She lives for chocolate. But I think she ate more that usual this morning.'  
  
James and Caitlin were interrupted by Sirius getting out of class.  
  
'Yes! I'm free!' He ran out the door and down the hallway.  
  
'James, is he OK?' Caitlin asked with a fake look of concern.  
  
'Yeah, it's just that he's had to suffer through one of McGonagall's lectures, which I can tell you through vast experience, are not fun.' James looked at his watch. 'Oh, shit, sorry, I'd better go, I'm going to be late for Potions. Bye!'  
  
James left in such a hurry that he didn't notice the note that had fallen out of his bag. Lily's note.  
  
But Caitlin did. She picked it up, shoved it into her bag and ran to Herbology. She'd read it later.  
  


OK, this is a rewrite. I thought that the original of this sucked and was full of holes and typos. Also, some people asked me what Lily and James were doing at the lake in the first place, so I decided to do a rewrite. I'm a lot happier with it. So would all you ppls make me even happier and review? Yay.

DISCLAIMER: Isobelle Harris, Elizabeth Parker and Caitlin McIntyre belong to me. Everybody else belong to JK Rowling. The song at the beginning belongs to LeAnn Rimes. If anybody feels like suing me, don't, all you'll get is debts. Just a warning! _*lol*_


	2. Why You Shouldn't Climb Trees To Spy On ...

This part introduces some new characters, Isobelle's not-as-crazy twin sister Annabelle, Annabelle's best friend, Marianne Baker and the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Oh and this is still the same day as the last chapter.

****

Before they Bloomed ~ Chapter Two

Why You Shouldn't Climb Trees to Spy on Guys

__

Astral boy, you're so high, will you ever come down?

Soaring over everyone you're bigger than the stars.

Astral boy, you're so hot, will you ever melt?

Flying so close to the sun now you know how I felt.

Now you're cold and so alone sitting on the floor

Hard wood boards and abstract thoughts gesture to the door.

****

'Astral Boy' ~ KILLING HEIDI

Marianne Baker sat in a tree, watching James Potter trying to conduct a Quidditch practice. He usually managed OK, but Isobelle was in a rather crazy mood.

She was flying in zigzags and loops all over the field, while her fellow Beater, Sirius, was juggling his and Isobelle's Beater clubs, while two of the Chasers, Miranda Owens and Craig Welsh, were playing tiggy with the Keeper, Joey Rigby, and the Seeker, Nerida Jacobson. They were completely out of control. The fact that Sirius had bewitched James' whistle not to work didn't help much either.

She turned her attention back to James. Recently, it had come to her attention that she, like half the female population in the school, had a crush on James Potter, and she had no idea what to do about it. 

So, basically, all she'd done was found a tree from which she could watch Quidditch practice unnoticed.

But in her observations, she had failed to notice another person climbing the tree.

'Hey, Ri,' this person said. 'Whatcha doing?'

Marianne almost fell out of the tree.

'Just sitting,' Marianne told her best friend, Annabelle Harris once she'd regained her composure.

'Oh.' Annabelle was silent for a moment. Then she spotted the so-called Quidditch practice. 'Ah. The joys of Quidditch when my sister's in a crazy mood. God it's sad.' She laughed, then frowned.

'Hey, did you forget that we were going to work on our assignment today?'

Marianne could've kicked herself. She couldn't believe she'd forgotten about that...Yes she could. Lately, she hadn't been thinking about anything except James.

'Sorry,' she apologised weakly. 'Um, it, er, slipped my mind.'

Annabelle studied her friend carefully. She was hiding something. Definitely.

'Ri, are you OK?' Annabelle asked. 'It's not like you to forget stuff.'

'Anna, I'm fine.' Marianne was not going to say anything about James.

'If you're fine, then Sirius Black's sane. Come on, I know you're hiding something,' she said impatiently. 'Out with it.'

Marianne sighed. The only person she knew who was stubborner that Annabelle was Lily Evans. And that was saying something. It was a choice between being interrogated by Annabelle day in, day out, or telling her straight out.

She chose straight out.

'I think I'm in love with James Potter.'

Annabelle fell out of the tree.

James was having absolutely no success in conducting a Quidditch practice. Isobelle was, to put it mildly, crazy, and the others weren't much better. Besides, James' mind wasn't really on Quidditch at that point in time anyway, it was more focused on a certain girl by the name of Lily Evans.

Suddenly, they heard a crash and a scream coming from a tree not too far away from the Quidditch pitch. 

All of them stopped dead, with Sirius dropping both Beater clubs, and Isobelle hanging upside down from her broomstick. James could just imagine the fit Madame Pomfrey would have if she saw her.

'What the hell...?' Sirius said, flying towards the noise. The rest of them followed.

'Sounds like someone's fallen out of a tree,' Craig remarked. 

'Well, der,' Miranda said.

'Hey, another love-struck fan proving themself to you James. Or you Sirius,' Nerida said teasingly.

'Ha, ha, very funny,' James said sarcastically.

'You never know Nerida, it could actually be someone in love with you,' Sirius said seriously.

'Not likely,' Joey said.

'Oh, shut up,' Nerida said. Since they'd reached the tree, they landed.

'Oh my God,' Isobelle said when she spotted her sister lifeless on the ground, Marianne leaning over her.

'She's not dead,' Marianne said quickly. 'Just unconscious.'

'OK, then we need to get her to the hospital wing. I think it'd be best if we didn't move her, she might have broken some bones. Joey, Miranda and Craig go and find a teacher.' Nerida started giving out orders in a business-like way.

'Tell them exactly what happened - actually, what did happen?' Seven pairs of eyes all turned to Marianne.

'Um, I, well, I said something, and I guess it must have given her a shock or something.' There. She'd said what'd happened without incriminating herself.

'What did you tell her?' Sirius asked mischievously.

'I, um-' 

Nerida cut Marianne off. 'We don't have time for that now. Sirius, Isobelle, go and put all the brooms and balls away. I have a feeling practice is over.'

'Yes ma'am!' Sirius saluted. Nerida pretended not to see.

'I think that's it. We'll just sit here and wait for a teacher.' Nerida sat down beside Annabelle.

'Yeah,' James added. 'And hope like hell they don't get Moreton.'

__

((A/N: Moreton is their DADA teacher whom they despise, you'll meet him in the next chapter))

'OK, where are all the teachers?' Joey asked, as he, Miranda and Craig walked along the empty halls.

'Oh, typical,' Miranda groaned. 'Whenever you don't want them, they're always there. And now that we actually want one, there isn't one in sight!'

'Isn't there that really big staff meeting on?' Craig asked. 'The one with the Minister for Magic?'

'Damn, you're right,' Joey said. 'What'll we do?'

'Go to the staff room?' Craig suggested. 

'No, the meeting's not being held there, it's somewhere else. Trouble is, I don't know where.' Miranda looked thoughtful.

'Damn,' Joey said again.

Minerva McGonagall hurried along a long corridor, late for the staff meeting with the Minister for Magic. She'd been organising detentions for James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew as well as a few other students, and as a result, she had lost track of time (she really had to be creative for those Gryffindor fifth years, she'd tried so many different methods, none of which had worked.)

She turned a corner, and was ambushed by three students, all gabbling desperately about something.

'Professor, thank God-'

'-we had Quidditch-'

'-we heard a crash-'

'-Marianne Baker said something-'

'-Annabelle Harris fell-'

'Calm down!' Minerva exclaimed. They stopped speaking at once.

'Now, this wouldn't be one of your jokes would it, Miss Craig, Mr Welsh?'

'No way!' they exclaimed so strongly that Minerva actually believed them.

'All right then, what happened?'

'Well, we were at Quidditch practice, which turned out to be a complete waste of time, 'cos Iz was just being such an idiot, so we were-'

'Is this important?' Minerva said, cutting Craig off.

'Oh yeah,' Craig said, and he was off and running with his own epic version of the afternoon's happenings. 

Miranda rolled her eyes.

'Miss Craig, do you think you could tell me what happened?' Minerva said, trying as hard as she could to stay calm.

'Sure. Like Craig said, we were at Quidditch practice, and we were all mucking around- I mean, we were all practicing hard,' she said quickly, seeing the professor's glare, 'and we heard this crash and it turned out that Annabelle Harris fell out of a tree, 'cos something that Marianne Baker said, and is now unconscious. We reckon it was something really juicy. Is that good enough?' She grinned sweetly, as Minerva turned very white. 

'Good God,' Minerva said weakly, dropping all her books on the ground.

Just then, Sirius and Isobelle turned round the corner. Minerva groaned.

'Ah, look, there they are,' Sirius said to Isobelle, grinning as he did so.

Isobelle ignored him. Instead, she totally lost it.

'WHAT ARE YOU ALL DOING STANDING AROUND!' she screeched. 'WHAT THE HELL TOOK YOU SO LONG! WE ALREADY PUT EVERYTHING AWAY, AND NERIDA SENT US TO LOOK FOR YOU! WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN DOING? MY SISTER COULD BE OUT THERE DYING, AND ALL YOU'RE DOING IS PICKING UP BOOKS! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!' 

Isobelle finished looking slightly hysterical, with her hair sticking out in all directions, and her eyeballs bulging. Actually, scratch 'slightly hysterical', she looked totally insane.

She gave them one last look of complete insanity, then ran off.

'All right, show me Annabelle,' Minerva said faintly. It was at times like this that she wondered what she had done to deserve students like hers.

Annabelle opened her eyes slowly. She could see a lot of white. Therefore, she concluded, she was in the hospital wing. What the hell was she doing there- Oh yeah, that's right, she'd fallen out of a tree after Marianne had told her that she thought she was in love with James Potter- she'd said what?!

She sat bolt upright.

'Marianne, did you say what I think you said?' she asked.

'Which would be?' Sirius prompted. Annabelle looked around and also saw James, as well as Nerida, Miranda, Joey and Craig. 

'Oh, shut up, Sirius, and yeah, Anna, I did say what you thought I said.' Marianne sounded very annoyed, and Annabelle guessed that James and Sirius had been putting her through the third degree.

'Yeah, and what did you say?' Sirius persisted.

'Yeah,' Craig added.

'Come on, tell us,' James pleaded. 'We won't tell anyone, we promise.'

Annabelle almost laughed. Yeah, as if Sirius would keep quiet about this.

'Trust me, you don't want to know,' she said. 'Hey, can I leave?'

'I'll go and ask Madame Pomfrey,' Marianne said, looking glad for an excuse to get out of there.

When she had left, Annabelle turned to the others.

'You guys didn't give her a hard time or anything did you?' she asked accusingly.

'Who us?' Miranda asked innocently.

'Oh, we didn't really,' Nerida said. 'We just...asked a few questions.'

'As if. Hey, where's Izzy?' Annabelle said, suddenly noticing her sister's absence.

'Oh. Her. Well, she kinda went ballistic at McGonagall, and no one's seen her since. It was so funny,' Sirius said, grinning at the memory. 

'She did what?'

'Uh-huh. She also yelled at me, Joey and Craig, but that didn't really count,' Miranda elaborated.

'Oh God,' Annabelle said, laughing.

'Hey, Anna,' Marianne said, coming back into the room. 'Madame Pomfrey says if you walk, you can go. She says she doesn't want James, Sirius, Craig and Miranda in here any longer than absolutely necessary, 'cos she's scared they'll blow something important up.'

'Hee hee,' James said mischievously. 'That sounds like fun, Padfoot.'

'Oh, yeah,' Sirius said, his eyes glinting.

'Don't even think about it,' Isobelle warned as she came into the room. 'Hey, Anna, how are you?'

'Fine, I just want to get out of here. Hey,' she said grinning, 'I heard about your run-in with McGonagall. Why, pray tell, did you do that?'

'Blame James,' Isobelle said yawning.

'Hey, I wasn't even there!' James said indignantly.

'I know, but since I played chaperone to you and Lil last night,' she explained airily, as James turned pink, ' I didn't really get much sleep. So, obviously, I had to rely on sugar and caffeine to keep me awake, and you've all seen the results of that. So yeah, I blame Lily and James.'

She sat down on the end of the bed, as James, with a beet-red face, tried to hit Sirius, Nerida, Miranda, Joey and Craig, all of whom were laughing hysterically.

Marianne gave a small smile. So Lily and James were together. Well it wasn't as if she hadn't expected it.

She sighed. Why, oh, why, did she have to, of all people, fall for James Potter. She shook her head. She was going mad.

Well, OK, that's that part finished. I'm sorry I didn't get it up earlier, but I had an assignment due yesterday, and I've been working on that all week. Plus my brother had to do a heap of stuff on the computer.

Well, I think that's it.

Except for one thing. Could you all please review?

Please?

__

DISCLAIMER: Isobelle and Annabelle Harris, Miranda Owens, Craig Welsh, Nerida Jacobson, Joey Rigby and Marianne Baker belong to me. The song 'Astral Boy' belongs to Killing Heidi. Everything else belongs to JK Rowling. So don't sue me, I want to go to Europe next year.


	3. Love and Other Catastrophes

chap 3 btb

Yes it's here! The note is in this chapter! I'm really sorry if it doesn't live up to your expectations, but I'm really tired. 

****

Before They Bloomed ~ Chapter Three

****

Love and Other Catastrophes

__

I thought that we would just be friends

Things will never be the same again

It's just the beginning it's not the end

Things will never be the same again

It's not a secret anymore

Now we've opened up the door

Starting tonight and from now on

We'll never never be the same again.

'Never be the Same Again' ~ MELANIE C

James couldn't stop thinking about Lily. All he saw was her red hair, her sparkling emerald green eyes. He definitely didn't see Professor Moreton leering over him unpleasantly, looking at the piece of parchment that James had most unfortunately been doodling Lily's name on.

'How sweet young love is,' Professor Moreton said softly, with a cold glint in his eyes. 'Potter, am I right in assuming that all your work is finished?'

'Huh? Er- no, sir,' James said, turning pink.

'No, I didn't think so. NOW GET BACK TO WORK!' With that, the professor went back to the front of the class.

James chanced a look around the classroom.

Sirius had almost fallen out of his chair from trying not to laugh, even though the tears running down his face were a dead giveaway.

Remus snorted.

Peter was sniggering.

Isobelle was giggling, snorting and sniggering at the same time, if that were possible.

Ellie was in basically the same position as Sirius, except she wasn't crying as much.

James didn't look at Lily.

He couldn't. She was too beautiful.

And she didn't want him.

James dropped onto the desk as he contemplated this thought. It had been two weeks since their stroll, and she hadn't said a word to him. He really had to move on.

But he didn't want to. That was the problem.

Caitlin McIntyre sat in Potions, listening to Professor Battistel rave on about the potion they were meant to be making, or would be once she'd finished. 

As Caitlin sat there, bored out of her brain, she remembered the note that she'd picked up after James had carelessly dropped it. She grinned secretly as she unfolded it.

It said;

Dear James,

I'm really sorry about last night. I don't know why I did that, but I'm really sorry if I hurt you. I didn't mean to. I just don't want any complications in my life. I don't want a relationship right now. Can't we just be friends? Please?

Lily.

'Whoa,' Caitlin said under his breath. 'Oh boy, this is good.'

Lily lay on her bed moping. It had been two weeks, and James hadn't shown any sign of receiving her letter, and she knew he had. So, obviously, he was choosing to ignore her.

Well, fine, he could ignore her. And she could ignore him.

'Stuff you, James Potter,' she said fiercely, as she pummelled her pillow pretending it was James' face. 

'Uh, Lil?' Ellie asked from the doorway. 'Are you all right?'

'Just fine,' Lily replied shortly. Trust Ellie to ruin her boxing match, which James the pillow was losing very badly.

'Somehow, I don't think so,' Ellie said walking over.

'Why would you think that?' Lily said defensively. 

'Well, there's your mutilated pillow for a start,' Ellie pointed out gently.

Lily looked down at her pillow. It did look a bit wrecked, with it being ripped and the feathers spilling out of it.

'So? That doesn't prove anything. It could just be an old pillow,' Lily said lamely.

Elllie almost laughed. She didn't know why the hell she bothered. Shows how stupid she was, she reflected.

'Whatever. But then there was that bit of Charms homework. You got like, four out of ten? When your worst mark before was nine out of ten?' Ellie shook her head. 'You definitely are not all right. What's wrong?'

But before Lily could answer, she was rudely interrupted (as Ellie put it) or thankfully saved (as Lily put it) by Isobelle.

'Moreton is such a BASTARD!' she raged as she stormed into the dorm. 'I hate him! You would not BELIEVE what he's done. He's given me a detention ON A HOGSMEADE AFTERNOON! And another one on the last Friday before the match against Slytherin AT PRACTICE TIME! I HATE HIM!'

'Yeah, you and everyone else in the world,' Lily said. 'What'd you do?'

This was a very direct tactic to divert Ellie's question, and Ellie knew it and was very pissed off.

'I, um, kind of turned Snape into a pig, and Moreton didn't believe me when I said that I was practising Transfiguration, and he got in the way.'

'Yeah, but it was intentional, right?' Lily said.

'Yes, but that doesn't count.' Isobelle waved that tiny bit of information away, and continued her story. 'So of course, he believed Snape, the filthy, biased scumbag,' she grisled. 'I should have turned him into a pig.'

'So you got two detentions for that?' Ellie asked laughing.

'Noooo ... I got the other one for turning him green, which was actually really dumb, but it looked really funny ... I got photos, by the way.'

'Where? Where?' Lily and Ellie both cracked up when they saw the photos that Isobelle produced with glee.

'Hmm. The look suits him,' Lily said. 'Suits his creepy personality.'

'Better yet, how about Snape. He's already got the greasy, all he needs is the slimy,' Ellie said, and all three of them cracked up, rolling all over Lily's bed, getting covered in feathers from Lily's pillow.

'Can I ask what happened?' Isobelle asked, picking feathers out of her hair.

'Long story,' Lily said. 'And not one I'm going to tell, OK.'

'Awww, honestly Lil, you're no fun sometimes,' Ellie groaned.

'Yep, that's me,' Lily responded cheerfully. 'So how are we going to distribute these photos?'

Annabelle and Marianne were sitting under a tree (not in it; Annabelle had had enough of climbing trees to last her a lifetime), discussing James.

'I don't know what to do. I really like him, but he's with Lily and, God I'm confused!' Marianne was saying.

Annabelle looked at Marianne strangely. 'No he's not,' she said.

'Not what?' Marianne asked.

'Not going out with Lily.'

'What? But you heard what Iz said.' Marianne looked confused.

'Yeah, and I asked her about it. They're not together, it was just that Lily and James went on a walk, and my kind, respectful sister and her friends followed them in the hope of some blackmail.' Annabelle cocked her head to one side. 'But I thought I told you that?'

'No you didn't,' Marianne said accusingly. 'And this was two weeks ago, right?'

'Yeah,' Annabelle said slowly.

'Then why the hell didn't you tell me! He's single! And he's been single for the past two weeks! Any other girl could have come along and snatched him up!' Marianne turned to her friend. 'Anna-'

'Relax, Ri. Calm down. You're starting to sound like my sister, and that's an incredibly scary thought,' Annabelle said calmly.

'Easy for you to say,' Marianne said. 'You're not lusting over the most sought after guy in the school.'

'True,'Annabelle said. 'Very true. And very smart, don't you think?' 

'Oh shut up. Anyway, you like Mark Jordan, don't you?' Marianne said by way of changing the subject.

'Yeah. His commentaries are soooooo awesome. What am I supposed to do? Hate him?'

'The Slytherins do,' Marianne pointed out.

'The Slytherins don't count. They hate all Gryffindors,' Annabelle said matter-of-factly.

'Yeah,' Marianne said. 'And they especially hate James.'

Annabelle sighed. Her best friend was well and truly caught, hook line and sinker.

'Ellie, this is serious,' Lily said, tugging at her hair, which had a rather weird effect. 'I just can't do this homework! Why, oh why does Moreton set such un-doable tasks?'

'Because he's a sick, sad person with a twisted personality,' Ellie answered flatly as she studied her History of Magic book.

'I wish he'd drop of the planet,' Lily grumbled.

'Since we're into wishing tonight, I wish Binns'd hurry up and die,' Ellie said closing her book. 'He's just soooo boring.'

'He should have retired years ago,' Lily said. 'Why won't he retire?'

'Dunno. I reckon he'll be teaching right up to the day he dies,' Ellie predicted gloomily.

'Which had better be soon,' Lily said. 'How much longer do you reckon he'll last?'

'With our luck, ten years more,' Ellie said.

'Ten more years of what?' Sirius asked as he and Remus plonked themselves down at Lily and Ellie's table.

'Can we do anything without you prats butting in?' Lily asked.

'Nope,' Sirius said cheerfully. 'So what were you talking about?'

'The possibilities of Binns dropping dead sometime soon,' Ellie answered.

'Oh, that,' Remus said. 'He's so boring, he might as well be dead.'

'Don't bank on him dying anytime soon,' Sirius said. 'Orla told me that, in her first year, people were taking bets on whether he'd last the year out. And, since my dear sister graduated last year, he's obviously a survivor.'

'You never know, we might get lucky,' Lily said.

'Hey, where's James?' Ellie asked. Lily could have killed her.

'Detention. Where's Iz?' Remus replied.

'Detention. Where else? Oh wait, that reminds me, we have some photos of Moreton and Snape taken after a rather unpleasant, well,-'

'Let's just say accident,' Lily continued. 'I'll go and get them.' 

She was up and down the stairs in record time, and threw them onto the table.

The fellow Gryffindors thought that some kind of explosion had taken place, but the crash was really Sirius falling off his chair, and the rest was just hysterical laughter.

So, naturally, the rest of them decided to have a little sticky-beak, too.

When James and Isobelle came back from their detention, they thought some Slytherin dropkick had slipped some kind of laughing potion in the pumpkin juice that evening. When the real reason for the rolling on the floor, and the tears of mirth running down people's faces became apparent, James too dropped to the floor.

Isobelle, however, grabbed a chair, and stood on it in the middle of the common room, bowing.

'I'd like to thank all my fans ...' she was saying.

'GIVE IT UP, IZ!' was the unanimous response from Annabelle, Marianne, Lily, James, Ellie, Sirus, Remus and Peter, who then continued laughing.

That was when she joined the 'I'm-going-to-die-from-laughing' club on the floor.

The next day, the photos appeared in the halls for all to see. They had labelled the pictures of course,so that everyone knew that the pig was actually Snape. Needless to say, those pictures were the form of much entertainment that day.

Peter even spotted McGonagall having a chuckle to herself, before she dragged all seven of them into her office and gave them detention.

'It was worth it though,' Ellie said, as they walked out of the office.

'Yeah, definitely,' Remus said.

'I don't see why I had to get into trouble,' Peter grumbled. 'I didn't even take the stupid pictures.'

'So?' Sirius said. 'You helped distribute them, you get detention.'

'Are you implying that my photographic abilities are somewhat limited?' Isobelle said dramatically, holding a hand to her heart. 'I have been mortally wounded ... My life shall never be the same ... How could you say that?'

Everyone cracked up laughing again. Except Peter. He just couldn't take a joke.

'You know what I'm really sick of?' James said after a while. 'Being a prefect. I'm sick of McGonagall's lectures about being a responsible young adult, and upholding the honour of the school. I actually want to know why they made me prefect in the first place. I've more detentions than any other kid in the school, except for Sirius. I don't get it.'

'Neither do I,' Ellie said cheerfully. 'No offense, but you're not really the kind of example the teachers want set to the first years.'

'God help us if they do,' Isobelle said.

Lily said nothing, even though she agreed.

James noticed that she was silent, and wondered why the hell he had to fall for the supreme ice queen of the universe. The thing was, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get over her.

Caitlin McIntyre had changed her mission in life.

Well, sort of.

It had used to be GET JAMES POTTER TO LIKE ME.

Now it was ANNOY LILY EVANS BY GETTING JAMES POTTER TO LIKE ME.

Yeah, that sounded good.

Anyway, that was the reason she was walking around the school non-stop looking for him, because she hated Lily. (Lily and Caitlin had a bit of history, you see, and now they hated each other)

But she hadn't been able to find him, although there had been huge crowds gathered round in the hallway for no apparent reason that she could gather, and she was getting a lot of exercise.

Then she spotted him. Walking with Ellie Parker, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Isobelle Harris, Peter Pettigrew and Lily. Her eyes narrowed. He wasn't supposed to be talking to her! Then she noticed that they were staying as far away from each other as possible.

'Hey, James!' she called. Now it was Lily's turn to narrow her eyes.

'Oh, hi Caitlin,' he said going over to her.

'We'll just go,' Ellie said, nudging Sirius as he let out long whistle.

'Have a nice time!' Remus, Isobelle and Peter said.

Lily remained silent.

'Real funny guys,' James said sarcastically. He didn't know what he'd done to deserve friends like that.

'We know!' Ellie yelled back to them.

James ignored her.

'Hey,' James said. 'How're you going?'

'Oh, just fine!' Caitlin gushed. 'How about you?'

'Oh, I'm great. We put up a bunch of pictures depicting Snape and Moreton in a rather embarrassing predicament,' James said grinning. 'Have you seen them?'

'Oh, yes,' Caitlin said, even though she didn't know what the hell he was talking about. 'Yes, they're wonderful!'

'And to top it all off, we got detention, too.' James said this with a look of bliss on his face. 'Did you know me and Sirius are going to break the record? We've alredy got about ... erm, I'm not really sure how many, but we've had a lot.'

'That's fantastic!' Caitlin gushed.

'Yeah, I know,' James said, not hearing the fakeness. 'Iz, Ellie and Lily reckon we're both prats, but I've noticed they don't mind helping us out.'

'Are you friends with Lily, then?' she asked, acting if she was surprised.

'Well ...' No, but he didn't have to tell Caitlin that, did he? 'Yeah, I am,' he said finally.

'Oh really? Because I heard Lily say some pretty horrible things about you,' Caitlin said, putting her tactics into play. 'I heard she said that you were a self-assured, arrogant pig, who reckoned he could pick up and girl he wanted just because he could play a bit of Quidditch.'

'She said that?' James asked uncertainly. 

'Oh, yes,' Caitlin said. 'I was absolutely shocked when I heard it. And that's not all,' she continued. 'I also heard she thinks you and your friends are going to wreck your lives if you don't buckle down and start working. But really,' she said, batting her eyelashes at James,'what's the fun in that? I used to think Lily was nice,' she said sighing. 'But she's turned into a two-faced bitch.'

'Wait, are you really sure?' James said desperately. 'I mean, this is Lily we're talking about ...'

Caitlin felt a stab of annoyance. Honestly, he should be grateful that she was getting him away from Lily.

'James,' she said, a little impatiently. 'How well do you really know Lily? Do you know what she's really like? Do you really know anything about her?'

'Yeah, I know a lot about her-' James began, but Caitlin cut him off.

'But do you really know what sort of person she is? You know, people like her are very good at hiding who they really are.' Caitlin looked a James, hoping he might be beginning to agree. 'You really should think about it.'

With that, she squeezed his arm and walked off, leaving James with some very confused feelings. 

Yay!!!! This chapter is finished!!!! I'm really sorry it took so long to get up, but I have had a heap of homework and my creative flow has been totally blocked off.

Anyways, can you all please review, so I know what's good, and what's not.

DISCLAIMER: Isobelle and Annabelle Harris, Marianne Baker, Caitlin McIntyre and Professor Moreton belong to me. Everything else belongs to JK Rowling. Except for the song. That belongs to Melanie Chisholm.


	4. Rumours, Gossip and a Disgusting Smell (...

****

Before they Bloomed ~ Chapter Four

****

Rumours, Gossip and a Disgusting Smell (As well as other things.)

__

What I choose to do

Is of no concern to you 

and your friends

Where I lay my hat

May not be my home

But I will last on my own

Cause it's me

and my life

it's my life

It's my life 

****

'It's My Life' ~ DIDO

The news that James Potter and Caitlin McIntyre had been seen together got around rather quickly. Through the Hogwarts grapevine the news that James and Caitlin had been seen together was quickly changed to James and Caitlin were going out and had been spotted a number of times at popular snogging spots.

Of course, the above was completely untrue, and of course Caitlin loved it, and of course James barely noticed. Sirius and Remus did though, and wouldn't shut up about it. James presumed that Ellie, Isobelle and Lily knew, but he wasn't sure, because they weren't talking to him. James had no idea why, he didn't think he'd done anything to offend them. Remus had suggested that maybe Caitlin was the reason, but James didn't think that was the reason. Surely they'd have enough sense to realise that he and Caitlin were just friends and it was just that damn Hufflepuff cow, Esme someone, making crap up.

The truth was that Remus was absolutely right and James was dead wrong. Isobelle and Ellie had acquired Lily's hate of Caitlin, and thought that James was being a prat for going out with her.

Which, of course, he wasn't. But Caitlin was working on it.

So that brings us up to date with our twisted heroes and their twisted lives, as well as bringing us to Sirius and Remus in the boys' dorm.

Remus was lying on his bed, attempting his DADA homework, an exercise which he suspected was completely pointless, but he thought he might as well try.

Anyway, while he was doing this, Sirius came bouncing in.

'Hey, do you know where Jamie-boy is?' he asked, accidentally knocking over a stack of books near the doorway. 'What are all these doing in here? Have we got a new guy in here, someone who actually reads books?'

'No,' Remus informed him. 'Those are the books you used for the Animagus transformation. Remember? You still haven't gotten around to taking them back to the library.'

'Oh yeah, so they are,' Sirius said remembering. 'I'd forgotten about them. But do you know where James is?'

'No, wouldn't have a clue. Probably somewhere making out with Caitlin,' Remus answered, snickering.

'Typical,' Sirius said in disgust. 'Hey, do you know why Lil, El and Izzy aren't talking to him?'

'Because he's supposedly going out with Caitlin. They resent that because they don't like her,' Remus said simply. 'Why did you want to find James anyway?'

'Oh, we haven't pulled any jokes for ages.'

'You call three days ages?' Remus asked, snorting.

'Yes, I do,' Sirius said proudly. 'Anyway, I'll just be on my way to the back of the broomshed to see if James and his lady are paying a visit.'

'You're sick Sirius, d'you know that?'

'Yep!' was Sirus' cheerful answer as he walked out of the dorm.

As he went down the stairs, he surprisingly ran into Ellie, Isobelle and Lily. Lily seemed to be hiding something behind her back.

'Oh dear. Going nutty already,' Sirius said sympathetically. 'I hate to break it to you, but the girls' dorms are actually over that way.' Sirius cracked up laughing. 

'Very witty, Sirius,' Ellie said. 'But we do know where we are. And we do have a legitimate reason for being here.'

'We do?' Isobelle asked. Lily kicked her. 'Ow... Oh yeah, we do. Lily, will you do the honours?'

'Sure,' Lily said, thinking fast. 'Um, we, um, have, to um, inspect the boys' dorms to um, make sure they're really, um, tidy.' 

'Yeah, what Lily just said,' Ellie added. 'Prefect's duty.'

'You and Iz aren't prefects,' Sirius informed them.

'I know that,' Ellie replied. 'We're just helping.'

'Yeah,' Sirius said sceptically. 'And pigs really do fly.'

'Yeah, they do actually,' Isobelle pointed out. 'At least they did that time in Transfiguration and Peter got a bit out of control.' 

'That time only, Iz. Most normal pigs don't have Peter around to help them,' Sirius said as though he was speaking to a three-year-old. Isobelle made a face. 'Seriously, what are you guys doing up here?'

'Playing postie,' Lily said.

'And what's that supposed to mean?'

'It means, Sirius, that we're delivering something,' Isobelle said, getting her revenge. 'Or is that too hard to understand?'

'Ha, ha, so funny I forgot to laugh,' Sirius said sarcastically.

'Dear me,' Ellie remarked. 'And you thought it was us who were going senile.'

'All right, I give up,' Sirius said, holding his hands up in the air. 'But seriously, what are you doing up here?'

'Seriously?' Lily questioned.

'Yes,' said Sirius. 'Seriously.'

'Seriously.' Lily repeated.

'Can you even be serious?' Isobelle asked Sirius.

'Like really serious?' Ellie joined in.

'Or like seriously having to be somewhere-' Isobelle checked her watch '-right about now?'

'What do you mean?' Sirius asked suspiciously. 'I haven't got anything on Thursdays except Quidditch, and that got cancelled because of mine and James' detentions- Oh shit! Mine and James' detentions!' Sirius hit himself on the head. 'Why the hell didn't you idiots tell me!?'

'How can we, Sirius, we're going senile, remember?' Ellie yelled after him as he began to run.

'How could I forget,' Sirius yelled back sarcastically. Honestly, those girls could be real idiots sometimes, especially when they wanted something.

Sirius started to wonder just what they had wanted in the boys' dorms, but then realised that he had some quick thinking to do if he didn't want another detention anytime in the near future (like the next day). He shoved all thoughts about James, Caitlin and the girls out of his mind, and concentrated on concocting an original excuse for being late that would impress McGonagall.

'Yes. He's gone,' Ellie whispered. 'OK, keep going.'

'Hey what if Remus is in there?' Lily asked suddenly. 'I mean, we know that Sirius and James are on detention, and that Peter's down in the greenhouses, but we don't know where Remus is.'

'Oops. I didn't think about him,' Ellie admitted.

'Hmm. Hey, I've got it!' Isobelle said excitedly. 'I can rush in there about our DADA homework, going on about how... Oh, never mind, it was a rubbish idea.' 

'No, you just might be onto something there Iz,' Lily said slowly. 'Run that by me again, would you?'

Isobelle nodded and relayed her idea to Lily and Ellie.

'It might just work,' Ellie said nodding. 'We might as well try. Places peoples!'

'Remus!' Isobelle cried desperately. 'Thank God you're up here, I really need your help.'

'Why? What's wrong?' Remus said quickly.

'I really, really, really need some help with my DADA homework,' she said tearfully. 'I can't do it, and I'm on my last warning in Moreton's class and if it doesn't get done he'll write to Mum and Dad and they'll kill me because they said I had to get better grades otherwise I can't play Quidditch, so an owl from Moreton is like my death sentence, so I really need your help so I can still play Quidditch.' 

Isobelle had said all of this very quickly and sounded very desperate and very, very frightening.

Anyway, it didn't matter how she sounded, Remus had been taken in. 

'Oh, Iz, I had no idea,' he said sympathetically. 'But I don't know if I'd be able to help, I'm having trouble with it too.'

'Please?' Isobelle begged. 'I can't not play Quidditch, it's my life!'

'God,' Ellie whispered from behind the door. 'Could she get any more dramatic?'

'Since it's Isobelle we're talking about, yes,' Lily whispered back.

Remus looked at Isobelle, at her pleading eyes and the tears running down her cheeks (Isobelle was one of those people who could cry on demand, an ability that she used to its fullest potential) and he gave in.

'All right, I'll help, but I don't know if I'll do a good job,' he said truthfully. 

'Thank you so much Remus, I knew I could depend on you!' Isobelle said as she gave Remus a hug. 'Now why don't we go to the library? It'll be a lot quieter there than in the common room,' she said as she practically dragged him down the stairs. 

'Thank God that's over,' Ellie said as she got up. 'My legs were falling asleep.'

'Yeah, and Isobelle's little scene was like watching one of those soapies that Petunia loves,' Lily said.

'What's a soapie?' Ellie asked curiously.

'Never mind,' Lily said. 'It's just a muggle thing. Come on, let's get this done before Peter decides to come back early.'

James trudged up the stairs to the Gryffindor tower. He was so tired that the only thing he wanted to do was to flop on his bed and, for a few hours, escape from the hell that other people called school. Behind him, Peter was complaining loudly about a plant that had attacked him, and Sirius was telling him to shut up. 

When they got up to the common room, they flopped into chairs. Quite frankly, they couldn't be bothered walking up to the dorm because they were way too tired.

'I am totally stuffed,' Sirius said as he sunk into a chair by the fireplace.

'With what?' Miranda, who happened to be just behind him, asked. 'Garlic, herbs or spices?' 

She and her friend Charlotte, better known as Charlie, who also happened to be Ellie's younger sister, grinned as Sirius groaned.

'Hi Miranda, Charlie,' James said.

'Hi,' they both said. 'So how's Caitlin going?' Charlie asked. James felt his face go bright red. Why did she have to ask him that?

'Er, I, well, I...' James stumbled.

'What do you care anyway?' Sirius asked.

'Nothing,' Miranda said. 'She just has a sis- OW! What did you do that for!' she protested as Charlie stepped on her foot.

'I actually have quite a big interest in why you're dating that cow-' Charlie began, but she was interrupted by James.

'But your sister has a bigger interest, I'll bet,' James said. 'Tell her that if she wants to know, she should ask me herself.'

'James? Hello? Anyone home?' Sirius said tapping James on his forehead. 'She's not talking to you, you twit. Of course she'd send her little sister to get the information from you.' Peter nodded in agreement.

'You know, I've really underestimated your intelligence, Sirius,' Miranda said thoughtfully. 'And totally overestimated yours, James.'

'Why thank you, Miranda,' Sirius said, bowing. 'At least _someone_ appreciates me.' He stuck his nose up in the air.

'And I'm _so_ flattered by your estimate of my intelligence,' James said sarcastically.

'You're both welcome,' Miranda said cheerfully. 'Anyway, since it's clear that you're not going to talk to us, we've got homework to do.'

'You? Do homework voluntarily?' Sirius asked incredulously. 'My God, take her to the hospital wing, she must be sick.'

'Oh, shut up, it's not as if you're any different. Come on Charles, we've got some predictions to make up.' The two girls left.

'Charles?' James muttered.

'I don't get it,' Sirius said.

'Isn't Isobelle going out with a guy called Charles?' Peter asked.

'Yeah,' James said. 'Some guy from Ravenclaw... Can't remember what year... Do either of you know where Remus is?' 

'I'm right here,' Remus said as he sunk into a chair.

'What happened to you?' Sirius, as usual, was completely over-burdened with tact.

'I just spent an hour with Isobelle,' he said, not realising the implications of what he'd said until he'd said it. 'Uh, wait, let me rephrase that ...'

The others didn't give him a chance.

'Isobelle?' Sirius asked slyly, and then let out a long whistle.

'You're a brave guy, Moony,' James said.

'I'll say,' Peter added, then looked puzzled. 'Wait, I thought she was going out with Charles.'

'Makes it even more interesting,' Sirius teased.

'Oh shut up, you twits, we were in the library,' Remus said irritably.

'Whoa. And Madam Pince didn't mind?' James asked, raising his eyebrows.

'The restricted section now has a reason for being restricted,' Sirius announced. 'It's X-rated.'

'You are sick, d'you know that Sirius?' Remus shook his head.

'You've told me that today already,' Sirius replied cheerfully. 'But thanks anyway. By the way-' Sirius was interrupted by Remus.

'I'm not going out with Isobelle, we were just doing our DADA homework,' he said firmly.

'Likely story,' Peter said.

'Give me a break.'

'OK, we're sorry,' James said, grinning. 'But we just couldn't resist.'

'I'll remember this,' Remus warned. 'Seen Caitlin lately?'

'Shut up, I'm not going out with her.'

'That's not what she says,' Remus said, beating Sirius to it.

'She's just a friend OK!' James protested.

'That's actually quite surprising,' Sirius said in an uncharacteristically serious voice. 'No, shut up and listen,' he added as James opened his mouth to interrupt with some smart comment. 'I'm not being a smartass-'

'For once in your life,' James muttered.

'-I'm actually being serious, as hard as that is to believe. James, six months ago, you would have already gone out with Caitlin, dumped her, be onto another girl, and be thinking about who to go for next. And don't deny it, you know it's true.'

James, who had been going to protest, decided to keep his mouth shut.

'So,' Sirius continued. 'Why the change? What's taking so long?'

'Would you believe me if I said I had no clue?' James asked.

'No,' was the unanimous response from Sirius, Remus and Peter.

'Well too bad, I'm going to bed,' James said, getting up.

'OK, yeah, that's a good idea, I'm dead,' Remus said yawning.

'And I'm Sirius,' Sirius said, getting the groans he deserved.

'We know,' Peter said impatiently.

'Unfortunately,' James added.

'Hey, what is this, pick on Sirius day?' Sirius asked, which was so unfair that none of the others bothered answering.

Instead of getting annoyed at no comment, Sirius switched to another topic.

'Hey,' he said as they were walking up the stairs to the dorm. 'We haven't pulled any jokes for ages.' 

'What, three days is ages?' Peter asked.

'Yeah, that's what I said when he started going on about this earlier,' Remus said. 'Didn't stop him though.'

'And it's not going to stop me now, and where the hell is that God-awful smell coming from?' Sirius said, gagging.

For there was a very disgusting smell coming from the direction of their dormitory.

'_Yuck_,' Remus muttered as he opened the door, releasing a smell that seemed to be concocted from Dungbombs, rotten eggs, squid ink, bad smelling air freshener and cat poo, as well as other things that weren't identifiable. He quickly shut the door behind him.

'Do you reckon we can brave that?' he asked.

'There is no way that I can sleep in that,' Sirius said firmly.

'Me neither,' Peter added.

'You've got to be joking,' James said, holding his nose. 

'No way in the world,' Sirius continued. 'I'd sleep in the Forbidden Forest first.'

'Well, where else can we sleep?' Peter asked, starting to look worried.

'The common room?' Remus suggested.

'The common room?' Peter repeated, looking downcast at the prospect of sleeping in the armchairs that you had to admit, although comfortable, were really not meant for sleeping in.

'Yeah, all right,' James said. 'Better than that gas chamber, anyway.'

'Who do you reckon did it?' Remus asked.

'Had to be a guy, and a Gryffindor,' James said thoughtfully.

Sirius thought, and couldn't believe he hadn't thought of it earlier.

'I know who it was.'

'You do?' Peter exclaimed.

'We are going to get them!' Remus said 

'They're going to wish they'd never been born!' James crowed. 

'So who was it?' Remus asked.

'Lily, Ellie and Isobelle,' Sirius said. 'They were trying to get into the dorm earlier, and I would have got rid of them 'cept they reminded me of my detention and I had to go.'

The others stared at him.

'It was them?' Peter asked incredulously. 'Why would they do that?'

'Take a guess,' Sirius said. He then turned to James. 'Jamie-boy, I'm very sorry to have to tell you this, but we're going to have to kick you out of the dorm,' he said solemnly. 

'What the hell are you on about?' James said, staring at Sirius. 'Are you all right?'

'Of course he's not all right,' Remus said. 'He's Sirius.'

Sirius' eyes widened. 'Jamie, we got targeted because of you. You are the reason our dorm stinks. So, therefore, we have to kick you out. I'm sure you'll find a nice bed somewhere ... Caitlin'd probably be glad to lend you hers...' Sirius doubled over laughing. 

'Ha, ha, very funny, I'm laughing hysterically,' James said sarcastically. 'And will you please stop calling me Jamie?'

'All right ... Jamie.' Sirius cracked up again, and this time Remus and Peter joined him.

James sighed. Why did his friends have to be such prats?

Gobellina slowly opened her eyes. She was on a bed in a place she had never been before, but looked similar to her home. She didn't know what she was doing there, but thought that her rather silly owner Isobelle must have done something stupid again.

She stretched and silently leaped off the bed, not caring about the hair that she had left behind, and padded towards the door that read 'Fifth Year Boys' and slunk down the stairs, pleased to be out of that room with that foul stench.

Out in the common room, it was quite warm, she thought as she crept past four boys asleep in armchairs. She looked at them as she went past. Bit of a stupid place to sleep, really.

She kept going, and made her way up the stairs to the girls' dorms. When she found the dorm she was looking for, she lept onto Isobelle's bed and snuggled up at her feet. She did love Isobelle, but really, she did the stupidest things.

The next day, when they were walking to breakfast, Lily asked Ellie and Isobelle a question that had been bothering her.

'Why exactly did we leave Gobellina in their dorm?' she asked curiously. 'For the fun of it or what?'

Isobelle looked at her in surprise. 'Didn't you know?' she asked. 'James is allergic to cats.' 

'Really? I never knew that,' Lily said thoughtfully. 'Strange really, that I've never noticed, you've always had cats.'

'Yeah, that's how I found out. He was always sneezing if he went anywhwere near them,' Isobelle said.

'He's not allergic to any other animal, though,' Ellie added. 'Just cats.'

'So when he goes back in there tonight, he'll be sneezing like anything,' Lily said slowly. 'Sounds like a good plan!' she said, grinning like an idiot.

'That's what we were aiming for,' Ellie said. 'Now we've sorted this out, can we go to breakfast, I'm starving.' 

That's all folks! Well, for this part anyway. I was going to make this longer, but I decided not to, mainly because I'm sick of typing, but also because this has taken so long to get up.

About that. Well, I am sorry, but I have had way too much homework and way too many assignments, and I read way too much. And I've had writer's block. Writer's block sucks.

Last but definitely not least, I would love it if you would all review. I love reviews, which is a bit pathetic, but I do. 

Yeah, I think that's it. Except for the disclaimer.

__

DISCLAIMER: Isobelle and Annabelle Harris, Marianne Baker, Caitlin McIntyre, Gobellina the cat, Charles (Charlie) Donaldson, Miranda Owens, Ellie and Charlotte (Charlie) Parker and Professor Moreton belong to me. The song 'It's My Life' belongs to Dido. Everything else belongs to JK Rowling. 


	5. Do You Know That Studying Sucks?

****

Before They Bloomed ~ Chapter Five

Did You Know That Studying Sucks?

__

I think of awhile ago we might have had it all

I was so stupid then you needed time to grow

But now as things change as well my feelings do

In time things re-arrange I am so sick of chasing you

But what do I get 'cause I just seem to lose

You make me regret those times I spent with you

Playing those games as I wait for your call

And now I give up so goodbye and so long

****

'Untitled' ~ BLINK 182

'Achoo!' James sneezed, in the process knocking down the Exploding Snap card castle that he and Peter had been carefully constructing.

'James!' Peter whined. 'Look what you've done!'

'Sorry, I've just got really bad allergies or something,' James said, sniffing.

'You don't say,' Sirius said sarcastically from the armchair he was sitting in.

'Oh shut up,' James replied testily.

Needless to say, all of them were in a rather bad mood. Their dorm still stank, and although they could now sleep in it, it was still very annoying. Plus, James had developed allergies, which was very strange as the only thing he was allergic to was cats, and he hadn't been near one for ages. He hoped he hadn't become allergic to anything else.

'Achoo!' James sneezed again. And again. And again. He got up in disgust. 'This is ridiculous. Achoo! I'm going to Madam - achoo - Pomfrey to see if she can give me - achoo - something to stop this - achoo - sneezing. Achoo! See you later.' He turned to leave the common room, still sniffing and sneezing as he went.

'OK, but tonight's the full moon, so be back by you know when,' Sirius said in a whisper after him.

'What are you - achoo - my mother?' James called back.

'Well as much as this may shock you,' Sirius started.

'Stop, I - achoo - don't want to know. Achoo. Goodbye,' James said, then climbed out the portrait hole.

'I want to know,' Isobelle said, coming over.

'I'm not talking to you at the moment,' Sirius said.

'Do you know how immature that sounds?' Isobelle asked. When Sirius didn't answer, she said, 'If I apologise will you talk to me? Because I need to ask you a few things.'

'Depends,' Sirius said, 'on how well you apologise.'

Isobelle sighed. 'Look, I'm really, really, really sorry-'

'No, not good enough,' Sirius interrupted, grinning. 'Hands and knees.'

'You're enjoying this aren't you?' Isobelle grumbled, but she got onto her hands and knees. 'I, Isobelle Pandora Harris-'

'Pandora? That's your middle name?' Sirius spluttered as he cracked up laughing. 

'Yes. Now where was I up to? Oh yes, that's right, I, Isobelle Pandora Harris, will hold eternal sorrow for the henious stink bombing of the dormitory of Sirius Adam Black,' - at this she grinned - 'James Matthew Potter, Remus John Lupin and Peter Michael Pettigrew. May I be forever grateful to you for opening my eyes to the wrong I have done.'

'Quick,' Sirius whispered to Peter. 'Get the camera. We'll never see Isobelle Harris begging for mercy again.'

'I am not begging for mercy you little creep and if you get that camera, I will slap you in the face.'

'Ooh. Feisty,' Sirius said, then paused. 'Hey, how'd you know what my middle name was?'

'Does that mean you're talking to me now?' Isobelle asked.

Sirius considered it for a moment. 'OK. What were you going to ask me?'

'Um... Oh damn, I've forgotten,' Isobelle groaned. 'Oh yeah, I was supposed to tell you that Ellie says she's sorry for bombing your dorm... There is more, but I can't remember it...'

'Great messenger you are,' Sirius sniggered. 'What was the deal with bombing our dorm anyway?'

'Oh, well you know Lily!' Isobelle said brightly. When Sirius just raised his eyebrows and Peter's face just remained blank, she elaborated. 'She was just basically pissed off, at James, at her sister, at teachers, and the only one she could get back at was James, so she did that. And because me and Ellie were bored, we helped. We are sorry though.'

'OK, but why can't Lily and Ellie tell us they're sorry themselves?' Sirius asked.

'Because Lily doesn't think she's sorry and they're both studying,' Isobelle explained.

'Studying what?' Peter and Sirius asked in unison. Isobelle rolled her eyes.

'Where have you guys been? We have OWLs in a month,' she said.

'Yeah, a month. We've got plenty of time,' Sirius said as he picked up the exploding snap cards. 'Care for a game of cards?'

'Sure,' Isobelle shrugged, and she sat down.

'What happened to studying?' Peter asked, annoyed at Isobelle's interruption.

'My philosophy is to study the night before, and if worst comes to worst, write the answers on my hand,' Isobelle said as Sirius dealt. 'And if I'm really desperate, I'll attempt Divination. I mean, it can't hurt; Mum is a Seer.'

'Divination's a load of rubbish,' Sirius said, then slapped the pile. 'Yes!'

'Shut up. Divination isn't a load of rubbish, Trelawney's just full of rubbish. Hell, I'm better at it than she is. Ha! Eat dung Black!' she added as she took the pile.

Peter watched them as they argued about everything and nothing and felt inexplicably left out. They were having fun and laughing and joking, and he felt on the fringes of everything. He saw Isobelle crack up laughing when the cards exploded in Sirius' face, saw Lily and Ellie studying over the other side of the room, saw other people laughing and having fun and realised that he was alone.

'What the hell is she doing?' Lily whispered fiercely as she and Isobelle looked for some book.

'Who?' Isobelle, absorbed in her own little world, wasn't thinking about any thing except Charlie Donaldson, the guy of her dreams.

'Caitlin!' Lily hissed.

Isobelle looked up and saw Caitlin McIntyre flirting with James Potter for about the fourth time that week, and it was only Monday. 

'So?' she said, too busy thinking about Charlie that she didn't really care much about anything else.

'So! She's a bitch!' Lily exclaimed.

'Language, Evans,' Severus said from behind them.

'Sod off Snape,' Lily said turning around.

'Why should I?' he jeered. 'This isn't your library.'

'Leave unless you want to be pulverised,' Isobelle said flatly.

'As if you could,' Snape said. 'Tell me Harris, why should I have to listen to you and this piece of mudblood filth-'

Snape was interrupted as Isobelle smacked him in the nose with her Transfiguration book.

'Aaah! You bitch!' Snape yelled, holding his bleeding and broken nose.

'Oops,' Isobelle said, giggling.

'Oops?' Professor McGonagall said angrily ten minutes later. 'You hit Severus Snape in the face with a Potions book and all you can say is _oops_?'

'It was a Transfiguration book,' Isobelle said defiantly from her chair on the other side of the desk.

'I don't care what book it was, it was a book and it broke Severus Snape's nose. Miss Harris, I'm severely disappointed in you,' the professor said, her eyes glinting. 'What do you have to say for yourself?'

'He called Lily a mudblood!' Isobelle said hotly. 'What was I supposed to do, let him get away with insulting one of my best friends? I don't think so!'

'Look, Harris, you know fighting is unacceptable at Hogwarts,' McGonagall said wearily, tired of arguing with Isobelle. 'You will have a detention and ten points from Gryffindor. You may go now.'

'Well whoopee,' Isobelle muttered as she got up.

'Miss Harris, any more sarcastic comments and it will be twenty points,' Professor McGonagall called after her.

'Yes Professor.'

Caitlin McIntyre was severely pissed off.

James Potter wouldn't give up on Lily, and quite frankly, Caitlin didn't know what to do next. She'd tried getting him to ignore her, tried bitching about her, tried avoiding being near her, but so far, nothing had worked. If anything, trying had made the situation worse.

Take that afternoon in the library for instance.

She, Caitlin, had been telling him how fantastic he'd been in his last Quidditch game ('Oh James, that goal was simply superb! How did you do it?' ; 'Um, aimed and threw?' ; 'You make it sound so easy!' ; 'Well, technically, it was.'), and he should have appreciated that, but no. As soon as he heard Snape yell something about a bitch, James shot down to that end of the library to where Isobelle had smacked Snape in the nose and was congratulating her.

And of course, Isobelle had just happened to have been with Lily.

Lily, Lily, Lily! Why did everything have to revolve around Lily?

'If I open my eyes and that question's still there,' Ellie threatened, her eyes shut tightly, 'I swear to God I'll scream.'

'Anyone who values their hearing, get out!' Sirius yelled. Some of the seventh years, who were trying to study, glared at him, but the other all ignored him. They were used to his ... strangeness.

'Shut up Sirius,' Ellie said, her eyes still shut.

'What? I'm only trying to forewarn them,' Sirius protested.

'I'm sure they can do without the warning,' Ellie said. 

'So are you going to scream?' Sirius asked. 'Because I need to know if it's worth a Summoning Charm to get my earplugs.'

'Is that question still there?' Ellie asked.

'How should I know? I don't even know what question it is.' 

'The only question on the page, you twit.'

'What page?' Sirius wanted to know.

'The one in front of you.'

'There are two pages in front of me.'

'Sirius, what page has a question on it?' 

'Uh, the first one,' he said.

'Then that's the page! So is the question still there?'

'Well, _der_. Of course it's still there. How else do you think I knew what page it was?'

Ellie screamed in exasperation.

'Hey, you haven't even opened your eyes yet,' Sirius complained, holding his ears.

Ellie opened her eyes.

'That's better,' Sirus said approvingly. 'Now you can scream.'

'Sirius, remind me to never study with you again,' Ellie said, picking up her books and walking off.

Sirius turned to James who was sitting in an armchair laughing his head off.

'Was it something I said?' he asked worriedly.

'No Padfoot you didn't say anything wrong of course it was something you said, you prat!' James said, somehow managing to keep a straight face for five seconds. Then he started laughing again.

'Well, what did I say wrong?' Sirius pressed.

'Oh, gee, I dunno, possibly the whole conversation,' James said airily.

'What was wrong with my conversation?' Sirius asked defensively. 

'Do you want me to be kind or brutal here?' James asked. 

'Preferably kind.'

'Ok. You were being - how should I put this - slightly annoying,' James said.

'Which really means you were being a pain in the ass,' Isobelle translated.

'Since when were you part of this conversation?' James asked.

'Since I overheard you talking and decided that I wanted to be part of this conversation,' Isobelle said grinning. 'And now I am.'

'And you're such a wonderful addition,' James said sarcastically.

'What's with you?' Isobelle asked in surprise.

'Don't worry,' Sirius said. 'He's still pissed about the smell thing.'

'So I should be! Tell me,' he said with sudden inspiration, 'which one of you wise guys put the cat in my bed? And I'm guessing you Isobelle, because you own two cats.'

'Who me?' Isobelle asked innocently.

'Yes you.'

'OK, yeah, it was me, but purely because I was feeling evil that day. Not because I hate you or anything, that's Lily's job,' Isobelle said grinning. 'But come on, you're not going to hold that against me forever are you?'

'Nah,' James said, suddenly grinning. 'But only because of the lovely damage you did to a certain slimeball named Severus Snape.'

'Oh, that,' Isobelle said. 'Oh damn, that reminds me, my detention's tonight. Damn, damn and damn again.'

'Are you done?' Sirius asked.

'Nope,' Isobelle said cheerfully. 'Damn, damn, damn, and double damn.'

'Shouldn't that be octuple damn or something?' Sirius asked.

'Huh?' Isobelle and James said in unison.

'Uh, never mind.' Sirius, having realised that he'd actually used his brain for something other than jokes and Quidditch tactics, felt a bit stupid.

'Good,' James said, 'because we have to talk about tactics for the game on Saturday.' Isobelle and Sirius groaned.

'No I'm serious. This is the Final. Do you want to win or not?' James asked vehemently.

'Yes sir,' Isobelle said, saluting. Sirius yawned.

'Guys!' James protested.

'Sorry, we're just tired,' Isobelle said. 'Besides, we've already done so much practice and talked about so many tactics already that I could recite them in my sleep.'

'James already does,' Sirius said snickering. James hit him with a cushion.

'Well you do!' Sirius protested.

'Aw, that's cute,' Isobelle said, grinning. 'What else does he say?'

'Well, he has said something about Li -' Sirius started, but James covered his mouth, and whispered something in Sirius' ear. Sirius' eyes widened, and Isobelle guessed there was some serious blackmail going on.

'On second thoughts, you don't want to know,' Sirius said, once James had let him go.

'Yes I do,' Isobelle pressed.

'No you don't,' Sirius said firmly.

'OK. How's Katherine going?' Isobelle asked, referring to Sirius' latest girlfriend, Katherine McDonald.

'Erm, OK,' Sirius said. 'I'm getting a bit bored though. I think she's on the way out.'

Isobelle rolled her eyes.

It was about this time that Annabelle tapped Isobelle on the shoulder.

'What the ... Oh hi Anna,' Isobelle said. 'Sorry guys, gotta go, but I still want to know what James talks in his sleep about.'

'That girl is just insane,' James said shaking his head. Sirius nodded and they both watched the twins walk away.

'What have I done now?' Isobelle asked once they were up in the dorm.

'Nothing, I just need to talk to you about something,' Annabelle said. She led Isobelle over to her bed, upon which an owl was sitting, with a letter that said on the front of it:

__

Annabelle and Isobelle Harris

TO BE OPENED WHEN TOGETHER

Isobelle felt a chill. Letters like this were a thing to be dreaded in the time of Voldemort. She looked at Annabelle and realised her twin was thinking the exact same thing.

'What do you reckon it is?' she said, trying to shove away the unwanted thoughts that kept invading her mind.

'I guess there's only one way to find out,' Annabelle said, trying to pretend that she wasn't thinking the exact same thing as Isobelle. She ripped open the envelope and pulled out the letter. It said:

__

Dear Izzy and Anna,

I can't write this, it's so hard, but I have to. Darlings, your Nan and Pop were murdered yesterday by You-Know-Who. We're not sure why, probably something to do with the ministry. 

You'll probably want to come home but you can't. Please stay at school, don't try to come home, I don't want anything to happen to you. At least you're safe there.

Your father's really very upset at the moment, so I think it would be good if you could go to a friend's house for the first part of the holidays. Very dark times are ahead, and I'm trying to figure out what is going to happen.

I'll write as soon as I have more information. 

Love Mum

Both girls stared at the tear-stained letter.

'No,' Annabelle whispered, the tears starting to fall. 'It can't be true, it can't be.'

'It is,' Isobelle said, putting her arms around her sister, starting to cry also. 'It is.'

And so both girls held each other, crying not just for each other, not just for their grandparents and the rest of their family, but for all the victims of Voldemort. They cried for their friends, and the darkness ahead. They cried for the future.

'Lil? What are you doing?' Marianne asked.

Lily jumped from the door guiltily and whirled around to face Ellie and Marianne.

'Izzy and Anna,' she said quietly. 'They're crying.' 

Ellie and Marianne crowded around, and pressed their ears to the door.

'You're right,' Marianne said slowly. 'Something's happened.'

'Something bad by the sound of it,' Lily said. 'They've been in there for ages.'

'Do you think we should go in?' Ellie asked.

'No, just leave them, Isobelle would never forgive us if we walked in on her crying,' Marianne said. 'I think we should just pretend that we never heard a thing.'

'Yeah, let's just go,' Lily said. 'Study or something.' 

They turned and walked slowly down the staircase into the common room, each thinking about the tragedy that they had just heard.

'Natasha, this really is not working,' Caitlin said. 'I mean, he's so gorgeous, and so smart, and totally my dream guy, but he doesn't seem to realise that I like him.'

'Maybe he just needs you to tell him,' Natasha McGovern, a fellow Ravenclaw fifth year, suggested.

'Or maybe he has good taste,' Sarah Rowan said from the other side of the room.

'Shut up Sarah, this is none of your business,' Caitlin said.

'Oh that's funny, my love life's none of yours either, but that's all you ever talk about,' Sarah retorted. 'When you're not looking in the mirror that is.'

'Ignore them Sarah,' Calista Browning said. 'They're just baiting.'

'I don't remember you being any part of this conversation Calista,' Caitlin said snootily.

'No, and I don't remember James Potter ever liking you,' Calista said sweetly.

'Like you'd know,' Caitlin said sullenly.

'Oh, come on,' Sarah said. 'Anyone with two eyes can see that he's infatuated with Lily Evans.'

Caitlin bristled. Even people in her own dorm sided with Lily. This was just not fair.

'Well obviously, your eyes need testing. He hates Lily,' Natasha said triumphantly.

'My eyesight's perfect, thank you very much,' Sarah said brightly. 'Had it tested last holidays. Besides, he doesn't hate her, he just thinks he does.'

'What about Lily then?' Natasha said quickly. 'She hates him too.'

'Ditto,' Calista said. 'She just thinks she does.'

Caitlin and Natasha both glared at Calista, Caitlin because she knew she was absolutely right, and Natasha because Calista was upstaging her, and she _hated_ that.

'Come on Natasha, let's go,' Caitlin said. 'We can tell that we're not wanted here.'

Both girls got up haughtily and stalked out of the room.

'Nor wanted by James Potter,' Sarah said.

'Why is that so important to you?' Calista asked curiously. 'Don't tell me you like him too.' 

'Well, I probably would if it weren't for Lily. Because I really don't want her for an enemy,' Sarah said.

'Very wise,' Calista said, nodding. 'That girl has a temper to match her red hair all right.'

'Oh, yeah,' Sarah said grinning. 'Come on, let's go study, I don't want to fail anything, I'll get grounded for life.

James was sitting in the library, trying to study Potions so he wouldn't be grounded for life, but people kept interrupting him. First it had been Sirius, with a new joke idea, then it had been Miranda and Craig with new Quidditch tactics for the next season, then it had been Annabelle asking him for help, then it had been Snape being the creep he was, and now it was Caitlin. 

'Hello Caitlin,' he said warily, afraid she was going to try something mushy again.

'James, we have to talk. It's clear that this relationship is not working,' she said, taking James completely by surprise. Relationship? They weren't even in a relationship. 

But before he could state this fact, Caitlin resumed her speech.

'I'm really, really _really_ sorry, but I'm sick of being the only one putting into this relationship, so I think that we should stop it now.' Caitlin looked at him, hoping for some reaction, but all he did was stare at her with blank face. She sighed and started again. 'So now it's goodbye.'

She kissed his cheek and walked off.

'OK what the hell happened there?' he asked his Potions book.

'I have no idea, maybe you could tell me?' Sirus offered, walking up behind him.

'Is it possible for someone to dump you if you're not even going out?' James asked in answer to his question. 

'Come again?' Sirius asked with confusion.

'Caitlin dumped me, and we weren't even going out,' James explained. 'Is that possible?' 

'I should have listened to Ellie when she said she was a fruit loop,' Sirius said. 'That girl is very strange.'

Isobelle and Annabelle both recovered, although gradually. But the rest of the term had never passed so slowly. Gryffindor won the Quidditch Cup, and everyone was fully focussing on the OWLs that had come way too quickly.

'I'm going to fail Defence Against the Dark Arts big time,' Ellie groaned.

'Aren't we all?' Lily asked dryly.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the table, Isobelle was dying over the fact that she apparently knew nothing.

'You're telling me that you haven't learnt anything during your five years at this school?' James asked.

'Yes I have learnt a lot of stuff, but I've forgotten half of it,' Isobelle protested. 'It's sort of like my brain's a maze of filing cabinets, but I've lost half the keys.'

'Huh?'

'Don't worry, I don't really know what I said either,' Isobelle reassured him.

Needles to say, all the Gryffindor fifth years were studying together, even Lily and James, although they were up opposite ends of the table.

'I don't understand this,' Peter whined. 'What does this mean?'

Everyone ignored him, as they were too busy trying to figure out their own stuff. When Peter realised that everyone was ignoring him, he got all huffy, and bugged Remus so much that he ended up helping him anyway, and he probably had the most work of all, due to the amount of school he'd missed.

'OK, it's like this,' Sirius said after an hour of study. 'Either we fail or we don't fail. I don't think we can do much more. I guess it's just up to fate now.'

'Well, let's hope that fate lets Isobelle find the keys to her filing cabinets so she won't get grounded for the rest of her life,' Marianne said grinning. 'And that Moreton somehow drops dead without writing an exam paper. Then, I think we should be right.'

'God, let's hope so,' Remus said, closing his books.

OWLs came and went. Isobelle found some of her keys, but couldn't find any of the DADA keys, but then, as Lily said, she didn't think she'd learnt anything in DADA anyway, so maybe there wasn't a key to lose.

Lily freaked over Arithmancy, Remus, James and Sirius freaked over Potions, Isobelle and Annabelle freaked over Transfiguration, Ellie freaked over Ancient Runes, Marianne freaked over Astronomy and Peter freaked over everything. 

They all freaked over DADA, but then, so did the whole school, OWLs, NEWTs or not.

'Thank God that's over,' Ellie said on the trip home.

'Oh yeah,' Lily said. 'I thought I was going to die during that Defence Against the Dark Arts paper.'

'I think we all felt like that,' Sirius said. 'It's just a pity that Snape _didn't_ die.'

'But then what would we do without someone to torment?' James asked.

'Not much,' Isobelle said, and they all cracked up laughing.

They were still laughing when the train pulled up at King's Cross.

'Well, it's certainly been a big year,' Lily said as they stepped off the train.

'Yes,' Isobelle said as she watched Annabelle walk off with Marianne, who she was staying with, as she watched Sirius get a noogie from his sister Orla, watched James get a hug from his mum while he struggled, watched Ellie punch her brother Cameron and watched Peter drop his toad. 

'It's been a big year.'

Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm on holidays!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Anyway, since I'm now on holidays (school finished yesterday) I decided to be nice to all you people out there and finish this chapter, so instead of going out and celebrating, I sat on my butt and typed all day.

And now this chapter is finished. Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry it took so long, but I had too much homework. I really detest homework, but for some reason my teachers love it, and they love giving out heaps. 

I was going to thank a few people in the last part, but I forgot, so I'll thank them now. Thank you Keeley for giving me the cat hair idea (now your first name is immortalised in one of my fics. Will you forgive me?) and thank you for the rest of my friends for telling me to get my ass into gear when I've felt like giving up on this damn fic but if I did, they'd kill me. Also thank you to my teachers for being the dumb people they are, and thinking that I'm actually doing my work when I'm writing this, and finally, thank you to my reviewers for reviewing. I love you. And I'll love you even more if you review this chapter.

Oh, and if anybody has any ideas for the summer or for sixth year, could you e-mail me? Cos I've sort of hit a block, and I can't think of much.

Till next time folks!

__

DISCLAIMER: Isobelle and Annabelle Harris, Marianne Baker, Caitlin McIntyre, Charles (Charlie) Donaldson, Ellie and Cameron Parker, Sarah Rowan, Calista Browning, Natasha McGovern, Orla Black and Professor Moreton belong to me. The song 'Untitled' belongs to Blink 182. Everything else belongs to JK Rowling. And, yes, I stole a couple of lines from '10 Things I Hate About You' and 'Looking For Alibrandi'. But don't sue me cos I really want to go to Europe next year and my current bank balance is $63.90. Not really that great.


	6. Living, Loving - and Losing

Before you read this, I would just like to say that I am so sorry that this chapter has taken so long, but I have been so busy. Truly. And this chapter was really hard to write, so people had better appreciate it and not bug me ::glares at Keeley and Kirsty:: No, not really. Jokes, jokes. But I hope people like it.

But also, can I say that it's not likely that the 7th chapter will be out before September the 24th, due to Eistedfodd, assignments and netball. Actually, speaking of netball, we have Grand Final tomorrow. Go team!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Uh, yeah, for any of you that actually bothered to read the above meaningless crap, you can now read the story. Tootles!

****

Before They Bloomed ~ Chapter Six

Living, Loving - and Losing.

__

When the lights go down

you'll come here again

you'll come here even though

your body's at its end

You'll call my name

Right across my heart

I'll hear it and I'll be right back there

at the start

****

'Lights Go Down' ~ DEADSTAR

'Charlie is so cute!' Isobelle said as she flopped onto the spare bed in Lily's bedroom.

'I've heard this a million times Iz,' Lily said. Just living with Isobelle under normal circumstances was hard enough, but living with Isobelle in love was ten times worse.

'But he is! He's the most gorgeous guy to ever walk the planet! And I haven't seen him for a week, and I'm not going to see him again until Monday. I don't know how I'm going to get through the days,' Isobelle moaned. Lily threw a pillow at her, but she just put it over her head, and burrowed under her doona.

'Another few days won't kill you,' Lily said unsympathetically.

Isobelle sat up and glared at Lily. 'If I was here bawling my eyes out over him not being here, would you say that exact same thing?'

'Probably,' Lily said. 'And I'd also tell you to shut up, and don't get the sheets wet, because I don't want to have to wash them.' 

'Great friend you are,' Isobelle grumbled as she crawled off the bed and went over to her trunk. 'I could be dying here, and you'd say "Hurry up and die please, you're wasting oxygen".'

Lily laughed. 'I'm not that brutal.'

'Could have fooled me,' Isobelle muttered darkly as she rummaged around in her trunk for her pyjamas.

'Could you keep it down in there?' Lily's sister, Petunia, appeared in the doorway. 'Some of us are trying to sleep.'

'Shut up Petunia, and go back to bed,' said Lily's other sister, Holly, also appearing in the doorway. Petunia stomped off, muttering something about how glad she was to be going to Yvonne's place next week.

'Thank God,' Isobelle said. 'I don't think I could stand her for much longer. Tell me, how do you two live with her?'

'She's being worse than usual, because, well you know, two witches in the house,' Holly said shrugging. 'She just can't handle it, so she's being more of a cow than ever.'

'Yes, maybe worse for you, but for me it's just normal. She doesn't hate you Hol, like she does me,' Lily said softly.

'Lil, forget about it,' Isobelle said. 'So your sister's a superbitch. Everybody's sisters are bitches. Even Annabelle's a bitch sometimes. At least Holly's nice. I mean it could be worse. You could have two superbitch sisters. '

'But at least Anna's nice most of the time,' Lily said. 'I wouldn't mind if Petunia had always been a bitch, but she hasn't. She used to be nice ...' Lily trailed off.

'Yeah, ten thousand years ago,' Holly said. Lily raised her eyebrows. 'OK, maybe it was only five,' she corrected herself.

'Whatever,' Lily said. 'I'm getting a drink.' She went downstairs.

'Personally, I think that Petunia's jealous,' Holly said. 'But what can you do?'

'Not much I guess,' Isobelle said, yawning. 'I'm going to bed. See you in the morning.' She turned and went back into Lily's room. 

'Night,' Holly said.

'Yeah, 'night,' was Isobelle's muffled reply.

'Be quiet!' came a shout from Petunia's room. Isobelle in her bed, grinned, and Holly in the hallway grinned. Really, this was just so typical of her.

'Mum, do I have to be here?' Lily whined as they were travelling in the car the day after Isobelle had left. 'I hate Petunia and Yvonne and they hate me, why do I have to come?'

Lily's mother turned around. 'Lily, be quiet. You're acting like you're six, not sixteen.'

Louise Evans was not very happy with Lily at that point in time. They were on the way to pick up Petunia from Yvonne's place and Lily would not stop whining.

Lily sunk down in her seat. She wished her parents would listen to her, and realise that she and Petunia would never be friends, but no. They were always at them to be friends but too much had changed.

She looked out the window and saw a car speeding towards them.

'Dad, look out!' she screamed. Her father swerved, but it was too late. The car crashed into them and Lily's world went black.

After a month, Isobelle left the Evans' household, spent a week at home, then went straight to James' house, much to her annoyance.

'Why do I have to be here?' Isobelle asked her mother for about the fiftieth time. 'Why couldn't I just go back to Lil's?'

'Just because,' Pandora Harris said.

'Oh, you're so aggravating!' Isobelle yelled, then stormed upstairs to the room she'd be staying in at the Potters'.

'Well hello sunshine,' James said, as Isobelle passed his room. 

'Shut up,' Isobelle said.

'Somebody got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning,' said a new voice. 

'Shit, not you too,' she moaned.

'Yes, it's me, the wonderful, amazing, incredibly sexy Sirius Black!' Sirius crowed as he stood on James' bed. 

'Great, a vacation in the nut house,' Isobelle said sarcastically. 

'What's with you?' Sirius asked as he got down.

'Can't a person be depressed in peace around here?' Isobelle grumbled.

'Yeah, sure you can,' James said.

'No you can't, what's wrong?' Sirius asked.

'I'm really going to shout out my problems in the hallway for the world to hear,' Isobelle said sarcastically.

'Well don't,' Sirius said. 'You can come into the room you know.'

'Like I'd want to,' Isobelle said, but she came in anyway.

'So what's wrong?' Sirius asked once she was seated on the bed beside him. 'You can talk to me, you know. I'm not a complete jerk.'

'Since when did you become Mr Sensitive?' James asked, voicing Isobelle's thoughts.

'I have a sister,' Sirius said simply. 'Seriously, you can trust me.'

And to Isobelle's disgust, she found that she could. Really, what was the world coming to if she felt she could tell all her problems to, of all people, Sirius Black and James Potter?

'Shit, where do I start? Everything's wrong.' She paused to think. 'OK. I had this fantastic time at Lil's place, aside from her sister being the biggest bitch in the world, and I sort of forgot about Nan and Pop. 

'And then I got home. It was great to see Anna again, but things were so different. Anna spent all her time in her room reading, or talking to me, I spent all my time in a hammock in the garden, Dad spent all his time moping and going through all his old photo albums, and Mum spent all her time in the attic, staring into her crystal ball and reading all these complicated charts. It just sucked. 

'And then I got told that I had to come and stay with you for a couple of weeks. I mean, no offence or anything,' she added quickly. 'I just want to be with my family.'

'Come on, Iz,' James said. 'You can get through this.'

'Yeah,' Sirius said. 'Everyone's life sucks at one point or another. I mean, take Prongs for example,' he said gesturing. 'The poor guy's infatuated with Lily and the girl hates his guts.'

He waited for Isobelle's laugh, but it never came. Instead she turned pale.

'Lily,' she said slowly. She turned to Sirius and James. 'Have you heard from her within the past week?'

'You've got to be joking,' James said. 'As if she'd write to me.'

'She hasn't written me either,' Sirius said frowning. 'Iz, why do you want to know?'

'I - well, I've owled her three times since I left her place and I haven't had a single reply,' Isobelle said, biting her lip, her eyes beginning to fill with tears. 

'And I owled Ellie, and she's heard nothing either, and - and - and -,' she began to cry. 'I keep thinking that something's happened to her, and I keep having nightmares about you all dying and I get so scared and then I think of Voldemort killing my grandparents, and I keep thinking "What if he got Lily?" and I'm so scared, guys, I'm so scared, cause I don't know what I'd do without any of you.'

'We all are Iz,' James said, putting an arm around her. 'We're scared shitless of him, and we're scared for ourselves and our families and our friends.'

'I hate him,' she said fiercely, lifting her head from Sirius' shoulder. 'If I could, I'd kill him now. I hate what he's done to us, what he's done to other people, and I wish I could tear him apart. I hate him so, so, so, much,' she sobbed, and she laid her head back on Sirius' shoulder. Sirius stroked her hair awkwardly and James held her as she cried.

After a while, Isobelle lifted her head from Sirius' shoulder and wiped her eyes.

'OK, I think I'm finished now,' she said with a twisted smile. She looked at Sirius' shirt. 'Oops, I've completely saturated your shirt. I'm sorry.'

'Uh, no, that doesn't matter. It needed a wash anyway,' Sirius said.

'You OK now?' James asked.

Isobelle nodded. 'Yeah. Thanks to you guys.'

'We didn't do anything,' James said. 'We just sat here.'

'Yeah, and you helped me. Not the other way around,' Sirius said.

Isobelle raised an eyebrow. 'Yeah? And how did I help you?'

'You washed my shirt,' he said, shrugging.

Isobelle smiled. 'I guess I did. But seriously, you helped me just by sitting here and listening, and I'll never forget that you do actually have a sensitve side.'

'Just don't tell anyone,' Sirius warned.

'Or else our reputation will go down the drain,' James said.

Isobelle laughed. 'What do you say we have a game of Quidditch?'

'You're on,' James and Sirius said in unison.

Lily woke up slowly. She didn't know where she was or what she was doing there.

'Hello?' she said, sitting up. A nurse came in, smiling.

'Hello,' she said. 'I'm Bron. You're in hospital. Do you know why you're here?'

'Uh...no?' Lily said, still trying to figure out what the hell she was doing there. She felt fine, aside from being a little achy and a bit tired.

'You were in a car accident,' the nurse said. 'You've been in a coma for the last five days.' 

Lily gaped. Car accident? Coma?

'Look, I know it's a bit of a shock,' Bron said, 'but you're fine. Now do you remember what happened?'

Lily searched her mind. 'No,' she said.

'What's the last thing that you remember then?' Bron asked quietly.

Lily searched her mind again. 'I think we were on our way to pick up Petunia ... my sister ... from somewhere ... we were in the car ... but that's all I can remember... When do I get to go home? I mean, I'm fine aren't I'

'Yes, nothing was wrong with you except the fact that you were in a coma,' Bron said. 'The doctor may want to talk to you though. Is that all right?'

Lily nodded.

'Ok, that's great. I have to go now, but buzz me if you need anything, all right?' Bron turned to leave the room.

'Bron?' Lily asked just as Bron reached the doorway. 'What happened to my parents?'

Bron stopped and turned around slowly. 'Oh, Lily, I-' she started, but she didn't have to finish.

'They're dead, aren't they?' she said bitterly, her eyes filling with tears.

Bron nodded. 'I'm sorry Lily,' she said.

'It's not your fault,' Lily said as she began to cry. 

Bron went back to Lily's side and put her arm around her. She didn't say anything. She didn't know what to say.

'You don't have to stay here, you know,' Lily said after a while, still crying. 'I know how busy it gets round places like this. And really, I'd prefer to be alone.'

Bron nodded and stood up. 'Buzz me if you need anything,' she said again quietly, and then she went outside.

'What's wrong?' her colleague, Steph, asked.

'That poor girl,' Bron said. 'If I could get hold of the drunk who rammed that car I'd wring his neck.'

'Yeah, well that's how we all feel about stuff like that,' Steph said. 'Come on Bron, you know it's part of the job.'

Bron banged her hand on the desk. 'God, I hate days like this.'

Lily woke up. She looked around and saw Holly sitting beside her bed.

'Hey Lil,' Holly said when she noticed that her sister was awake. 'The nurse said you'd woken up, but by the time we got here, you'd fallen asleep again.'

'Yeah,' Lily said listlessly.

'She also said that she'd told you about Mum and Dad,' Holly said, fidgeting. 'So Heather's out there being a regular old cow to her.'

'Heather's here?' Lily asked.

'Yeah,' Holly said. 'Being a bitch as usual.'

'Bloody hell, what was Bron supposed to do?' Lily asked angrily. 'I asked her what happened to them. She couldn't just leave!'

Holly got up then, and, sitting down on the bed, put her arm around Lily. 'Don't get angry, it's just aunt Heather. It's not worth getting angry.'

'Are we going to end up with her?' Lily asked.

'Dunno,' Holly said. 'Probably, it's not likely that they'd give us to Monica, even though she is a lot more fun,' she added, referring to their mother's other sister.

'I hate her, I'm not living with her,' Lily said beginning to cry. 'I want Mum and Dad.'

'Don't cry Lil,' Holly said, beginning to cry herself. 'Oh God, now you've got me started,' she added, sniffing. 'Come on Lil, we'll be fine.'

Lily didn't say anything, she just cried. Holly cried too, and they cried until their aunt decided that she'd abused Bron enough and came in.

Lily stopped crying and just glared at her coldly.

'Hello Lily,' Heather said. 'Are you all right?'

'Yeah, fine,' she said shortly.

'I'm very sorry that that nurse told you about your parents,' Heather said. 'I'd actually meant to tell you myself.'

'I asked her what happened,' Lily said, raising her voice again. 'She had to tell me. I'm glad that she did, you know. At least she didn't treat me like a baby. You had no right to abuse her like that, she was only doing her job!'

'I didn't think it was her place to tell you,' Heather sniffed.

'You know, I'm not a little kid any more!' Lily said. 'I'm sixteen! I'm going into my second last year of school! I can handle the truth. At least Bron told me straight out. It would have taken you half the day.'

'Aunt Heather, I think we should go,' Holly said, interrupting. 'We can come back later.'

'All right,' Heather said tightly, picking up her handbag.

'See you later Lil,' Holly said, and then they were gone.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Holly turned angrily to her aunt.

'You didn't tell her,' she said accusingly. 'You didn't tell her about Mum.' 

'Oh, Holly, what good would it have done?' Heather asked wearily. 'She's dead now too.'

'I think Lil should have the right to see her,' Holly argued. 'To at least say goodbye.'

'It would have made her more upset, seeing her like that,' Heather said as they passed the front desk. 

Bron, talking to the ward clerk, watched Heather and Holly as they walked down the hall, still arguing.

'It's sickening,' Lily heard her say as she crept towards the door of her room. 'I can't believe they won't tell her.'

'What, the fact that her mum only died a few hours ago?' Jenny, the ward clerk asked. Bron nodded. 'Yeah, it is pretty sick isn't it? I'd die if someone did that to me.'

'I feel so sorry for her,' Bron said. 'I wish I could take Lily to see her mum but I can't.'

'Why not?' Lily asked coldly from outside her room. Bron spun around, and Jenny quickly busied herself with work.

'Lily -' Bron started, but was interrupted.

'Is that the truth?' Lily asked fiercely. 'That my mother didn't die in the accident?'

'She was severely injured in the crash, and was in a coma like you,' Bron said softly. 'She died about an hour before you woke up. I'm really sorry I didn't tell you, but your aunt made it clear that it was none of my business.'

'I understand,' Lily said. 'Can you take me to see her?'

'Of course,' Bron said quickly and she led Lily to the lift. The trip to the floor where Lily's mother was silent, with Lily filled with apprehension at what she might see.

Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, the lift stopped. Lily followed Bron quietly as they went to Louise Evans' room. When they reached it, Lily crept towards the bed, completely oblivious of Bron at the doorway, or of the hustle and bustle outside the room. All Lily could see was her mother.

Lily could feel the tears flow down her face as she put her hand on her mother's cold cheek. She looked so calm and peaceful, and Lily realised what she had to say. 

Lily stroked her mother's hair, the tears running down her face. 'Goodbye Mum.'

OK, well that was the end. I don't have the energy to write any more, and to tell you the truth, I've run out of imagination.

So, as always, review. Thanks!

__

DISCLAIMER: I don't feel like writing the whole thing out, so if you really want to read it, check out my previous chapters. Besides, I'm sure you can guess which characters do belong to me and which characters are JK Rowling's. If you can't, a little clue; my characters are the ones that don't appear in the best selling books by JK Rowling, OK? Oh, and the song 'Lights Go Down' belongs to Deadstar.

Also, I guess I borrowed Bron and Steph from All Saints. But Steph's dead, so I guess it doesn't matter. I guess they belong to Seven Network or something. My apologies to the Seven Network for stealing them.


	7. Back to School (but a bit of summer too)

****

Before They Bloomed ~ Chapter Seven

Back to School (but a bit of summer too)

__

~ Back to school

Back to school

To show my daddy I'm not a fool

My lunch packed in

My shoes tied tight

Hoping I do not get into a fight

Back to school

Back to school

To show my daddy I'm not a fool ~

****

From 'Billy Madison' ~ ADAM SANDLER

It was a Friday morning in Lily's household (consisting of her aunt, Monica, her sisters, Petunia and Holly, and her six-year-old twin cousins, Lucy and Katie), and things were not good. Lily and Holly were trying to enjoy the last few days of their holiday, Monica was trying to get the twins breakfast and Petunia was trying to get ready for a job interview.

'Monica!' Petunia yelled from inside her wardrobe. 'Where's my blue shirt?'

'Shut up Petunia!' Lily yelled from her room.

'Find it your self!' Holly yelled from the TV.

'Don't know Petunia, sorry! Check the laundry,' Monica yelled from the kitchen. 

'I like blue!' Katie yelled from the table.

'Me too!' Lucy yelled beside her.

Petunia groaned and stomped down the stairs in search of her blue shirt, muttering all the way. Lily groaned and put a pillow over her head. Holly groaned and turned the TV up. Monica groaned and found her toast was burning. Lucy and Katie groaned when Petunia appeared at the doorway, holding something that could have once been a nice silk blue shirt.

Monica looked up from her charred mess of toast. 'Great, you found it,' she said.

'Look at my shirt!' Petunia said angrily. 'Look at the state of it! You know where I found this? In the cat basket! What, pray tell, was it doing in the cat basket? It's ruined!'

'Oh for God's sake Petunia, shut up,' Lily said as she came into the kitchen. 'Wear another shirt. It doesn't really matter, no one in their right mind would hire a cow like you.'

'I'm so glad you go back to school on Monday,' Petunia said viciously.

'You can't begin to imagine how glad I am to get away from you,' Lily retorted. 

'Oh break it up,' Monica said, finally getting rid of all the burnt toast. 'Lily, go back to bed. Petunia, wear another shirt and get out of my sight.'

'Fine,' they both said, and Lily turned on her heel and stormed upstairs, while Petunia crossed over to the bin and was about to drop the shirt in there when Katie interrupted.

'No, don't! That's Sally's shirt!' she cried.

Petunia spun around. 'You gave my shirt to the cat?'

'Calm down, Petunia, it's just a shirt, you can get another one,' Monica said calmly. 'Now go to your interview, or wherever you're going!'

'Fine!' Petunia said sulkily, and stormed out.

'Shut up everyone!' Holly yelled from the living room. 'I'm trying to watch TV!' 

Monica groaned. Now she remembered why she'd never wanted kids.

~~~~~~

'... and then we'll dye his hair pink,' Sirius finished. 'Sound like a good plan?'

James was roused from his doze as Sirius finished another one of his long complicated plans, all designed to humiliate Severus Snape and to make him the most laughed-at student in the school. 

'Great plan,' Remus said.

'But we wouldn't be able to do it,' Peter whined.

'Yes we would,' Sirius insisted. 'Wouldn't we James?'

'Uh ... I fell asleep. Can you explain again?' James asked sheepishly.

Sirius flopped onto the ground under the huge oak they were sitting under. 'You disappoint me, great Prongs. I describe only the best plan ever invented and you fall asleep.'

'Maybe that tells you something?' Remus suggested. 'I mean, remember the last time you said something like that about a plan. Do you remember what happened then?'

Sirius did. That was the time when they'd decided to give Lily and James some quality time together and everybody knew what had happened then. They still weren't talking.

'OK, OK, I get your point,' Sirius said.

'What plan was that?' James wanted to know. 

'Uh, doesn't matter,' Remus said quickly. Sirius nodded.

'Not important. I mean it was a complete disaster, so there's not much point in reliving it,' he said. 'Now, where's that list of pranks we were making?'

'We weren't making one,' Remus said.

'Well, that's something to do then!' Sirius said jumping up. 'James, parchment, Peter, ink, Remus, quill. People, we want ideas!'

Sirius was on a roll.

~~~~~~

'Well, do you like him or not?' Annabelle asked Marianne with exasperation.

'Like who?' asked Isobelle, who just happened to be passing by the open door of Annabelle's bedroom.

'I don't know - yes!' Marianne said, ignoring Isobelle. 'Oh, what am I going to do?'

'Telling him might help,' Annabelle suggested.

'Telling who?' Isobelle asked.

'No, he'll just laugh at me,' Marianne said.

'Who'll laugh?' Isobelle asked, getting a bit annoyed. 

'He won't laugh, I think he'll be flattered,' Annabelle said.

'Who'll be flattered?' Isobelle asked.

'You think?' Marianne asked hopefully.

'Definitely,' Annabelle said.

By now, Isobelle had had enough. 'WHO THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!' she yelled.

'You'll be a lot happier not knowing,' Annabelle warned, finally acknowledging Isobelle's presence in the room.

'No I won't,' Isobelle said impatiently. 'So spill.'

'James,' Annabelle said. 'And don't say I didn't -'

Isobelle's eyes widened, then she toppled silently to the floor.

'warn you,' Annabelle finished. 'Oops, too late.'

'Great,' Marianne said unhappily. 'First you fall out of a tree, then your sister faints. Anna, if I go out with him, the whole school'll be in the hospital wing!'

'No, it'll just be us,' Annabelle said. 'We don't take shocks very well. They sort of ... unbalance our systems.'

'Your systems are unbalanced enough already,' Marianne grumbled. 'Help me move her. Now!'

Annabelle obeyed. While Marianne in a bad mood wasn't as bad as Lily in a bad mood, it was still pretty bad.

~~~~~~

'Oof,' Cameron Parker said as he tried to lift his sister's trunk down the front steps of their house. 'Bloody hell El, what've you got in this thing? Art stuff? It weighs a bloody ton!'

'Yeah, there's some art stuff, but mainly books,' Ellie said from the front hall.

'Books?' Cameron said in disbelief. 'What the hell do you need books for?'

'Well, I am going back to school,' Ellie said teasingly. 'You know that place where I'm supposed to learn stuff?'

'Correct me if I'm wrong,' Cameron said, 'but I definitely didn't need that many books when I was at Hogwarts. And I'm sure Charlie doesn't have that many.'

'Nope,' Charlotte said, appearing behind Ellie. 'I just go to the library.'

'I don't like that library, so I raided ours,' Ellie said, picking up her owl's cage. Cleo hooted in an affectionate way.

'Why?' Cameron asked, giving up on the trunk and sitting on a step. 'Why don't you like the library?'

'I hate Madam Pince. I hate her beady eyes and she's so bloody creepy,' Ellie said shivering.

'Creepy? You're scared of the librarian?' Cameron sat down and laughed. 'Oh, this is good.'

'Do you know how many charms she puts on those books?' Ellie asked defensively. 'Last year, I had a book that was a month overdue, but I couldn't find it. You know I ended up finding it? The bloody thing was yelling "Take me back Elizabeth Parker, take me back!" from under Lily's bed. And it wouldn't shut up. Took me an age to find it, with all the crap Lily's got under her bed. Honestly, you should see how much!'

Cameron and Charlotte just laughed harder. 

'It's not funny!' Ellie protested. 'The thing yelled day and night and since I was the borrower, I was the only one who could hear it. It drove me batty!'

'All right then, batty,' Cameron said, grinning as he got up from the step. 'Carry your own trunk.'

Ellie wrinkled her nose. 'Yuk.'

~~~~~~

It was a fine Monday morning in September, the sun was shining, the birds were singing and young witches and wizards from all over the kingdom were arriving at King's Cross Station in London, ready to catch the Hogwarts Express.

'Hey! Lily!' Ellie yelled as she caught sight of one of her best friends. 'Over here!' 

Lily turned around slowly. Ellie instantly noted that she looked tireder and paler than usual and that she seemed very preoccupied. Unsmiling, she made her way over to Ellie.

'Hello stranger,' Ellie said teasingly. 'Haven't seen you for awhile. What've you been doing?'

'Uh, not much,' Lily answered distantly, her eyes fixed on a point somewhere above Ellie's head.

'Lily are you OK?' Ellie asked, noticing the distance in her voice 'Is anything wrong?'

'Uh, I, have to go say goodbye to my family,' she said quickly, then bolted. Ellie stared at the two trunks now at her feet.

'Are you just going to stand there and stare at those trunks and hope that they'll move on their own so that you don't have to lug them onto the train? Or are you just standing there looking? And what do you need two trunks for anyway?' 

Isobelle had arrived.

'Oh, hi Iz,' Ellie greeted her friend. 'One of them's Lily's. I think she's gone to say goodbye to her mum and dad.'

'Oh, all right. Have you gotten us a compartment yet?' Isobelle wanted to know.

'Uh ...' Ellie had to think a bit. 'No.'

Isobelle groaned. 'Ellie! You know that all the good ones will be taken by now!'

'Sorry, I got a bit distracted,' Ellie apologised. 'Lily's gone a bit weird. She's really spaced out.'

'That's probably because she had to spend the whole summer with Petunia "biggest-cow-in-the-world" Evans,' Isobelle answered.

Ellie began to open her mouth to say that she didn't think that was the problem, when Sirius ran over and hid behind her. 'Don't let her find me!' he gasped.

'Huh?' Ellie asked. 'Don't let who find you?'

'Katherine,' Sirius managed to gasp. 'Is she coming?'

Ellie looked. 'Nope,' she said. 'Why?'

'Let me guess,' Isobelle butted in smugly. 'You didn't bother breaking up with her last year and you didn't write to her over the summer to tell her it was over because you thought she'd forget about you. And she didn't. And now she's trying to find you.'

'How'd you know?' Sirius whispered from Ellie's feet.

'I've told you before, my mother's a Seer and I get the best marks in Divination,' Isobelle said. 'Though what I just said might also be classified as stating the obvious.'

'Oh Sirius,' Ellie admonished, but trying to hold her giggles in at the same time. 'Katherine is obsessed with you. I bet she spent the summer staring at a picture of you, convincing yourself that you weren't writing to her because you'd broken both your arms in a Quidditch accident or something.'

'Yeah, and I bet the next thing she'll say to you will be "Sirius, how are your arms!"' Isobelle cracked up at her wit, but then quickly stopped for a reason that became apparent to Ellie and Sirius immediately. 'Look, there's Charlie!,' she exclaimed. 'Got to go!' She ran over to her boyfriend, greeting him with a hug and a kiss.

Ellie kicked the third trunk now residing at her feet. 'What is it with people leaving their trunks with me? What am I, the lost trunks' home?'

'Quit grumbling already, I'm back to claim it. Have you got a compartment yet? Lily was back, and to Ellie's relief, was acting like her old self.

'No,' she said.

'Ellie!' Lily groaned.

'Don't worry, I've got one,' Sirius said, still at Ellie's feet. 'So do Annabelle and Marianne.'

'What are you doing here?' Lily asked Sirius, noticing him for the first time.

'Playing Hide and Seek,' Sirius answered.

'Huh?' Lily said.

'Katherine,' Ellie said matter-of-factly.

'Oh, I get it,' Lily said, nodding. 'You didn't bother dumping her before the summer because you thought she'd forget about you, but she didn't. Smart Sirius, real smart.'

'How'd you know?' Sirius demanded. 'Have you been talking to Isobelle?'

Lily was about to say that any moron could have figured it out when she was distracted by to small figures running towards her.

'Lily!' Katie called. Lily turned around as they halted in front of her.

'You forgot your hat,' Lucy said, holding it up. Lily smiled.

'Thank you, you have no idea how much trouble I would have been in if I'd forgotten it,' she said as the girls beamed. 'Now, you go back to your mum OK?'

'OK,' they said in unison. 'Bye Lily!' they called as they walked back to Monica and Holly.

'Bye,' Lily called after them.

'Who were they?' Ellie asked.

'My cousins,' Lily said, looking at the ground.

Sirius whistled. 'Whoa, I'm impressed. Your cousins came to see you off? My mum and dad couldn't even be bothered getting out of bed. Orla and her new boyfriend had to drop me off.'

Lily was saved from commenting by Annabelle, who'd stuck her head out of the carriage door and asked, 'Aren't you two getting on? We've saved you a space in our compartment.'

'Can I come too?' Sirius asked from his spot at Ellie's feet.

'OK,' Annabelle said, a little confused by both the request and his place at Ellie's feet, but decided not to comment. 'Where's Isobelle?' she said instead.

'Three guesses,' Ellie said.

'Oh, that's easy. Charlie,' Annabelle said immediately.

'Uh-huh. Can you get her trunk? I don't think she'll be back,' Ellie said.

'Sure,' Annabelle said, coming out of the carriage and onto the platform.

'What can I do?' Sirius asked.

Ellie smiled sweetly. 'Help me carry my trunk,' she said.

'I'm sorry I asked,' he muttered as he picked up one end of the trunk and Ellie grabbed the other. 'What've you got in this thing? Bricks?

'That's for me to know and you to find out,' Ellie answered as they lugged the trunk onto the carriage. 'Now shut up.'

Sirius obeyed, and stayed quiet until they reached the compartment and he dropped the trunk on his toe. Then he let out a string of very expressive words and sat down. Marianne stared at him.

'Don't look at me like that,' he said peevishly. 'It bloody hurt.'

'Oh, stop whining Sirius,' Ellie said.

The rude answer she would have gotten was interrupted by Isobelle and Charlie's arrival.

'Hi,' Isobelle said. 'Have you all met Charlie?'

'Only a couple of million times,' Sirius muttered, but Isobelle didn't hear him. Everyone else just nodded or said yes or something like that.

'Great,' Isobelle beamed. 'Can he sit with us then?'

'Sure,' said Marianne, the nicest girl in the world. Annabelle, Ellie and Sirius all sent a glare in her direction, but Isobelle and Charlie didn't notice. Lily just stared out the window.

Ellie decided that she wasn't going to be there while Charlie was there. It wasn't that Charlie was a terrible person or anything, he was actually quite nice, it was just that Isobelle went so lovesick it wasn't funny. 

So she grabbed Sirius and Lily and said 'We're going to see how the guys are going,' and pulled them both into the hallway. She turned to Sirius. 'Where's your compartment?'

'Third carriage,' he said. 'But Ellie, what about Kath -'

'Shut up Sirius,' Lily said peevishly. 'You're not the only one with problems, so get over it.' She turned to Ellie. 'If you don't mind, I think I'll stay here.' She turned and walked back into the compartment they'd just exited.

Sirius watched her go speculatively. 'What's up her bum?'

'Sirius,' Ellie half-heartedly scolded. 'She's been acting weird all day.'

'Must be that time of month,' Sirius concluded.

'I should slap you for that,' Ellie informed him.

'Yeah,' Sirius agreed. 'You should. Lily would have.'

'Well, I'm not Lily. So I'll let you get away with it once,' Ellie said. 'Now let's go.'

'But-' Sirius started.

Ellie turned to him and pointed a finger. 'Don't get me started. If we run into her, so what? You can't avoid her forever. So shut up!'

'OK,' Sirius said quickly, and meekly showed Ellie the way.

~~~~~~

After a very long train ride, they were at the castle, and Ellie and Sirius were walking up the stairs into the Entrance Hall.

'Hey, Sirius, Ellie!' Isobelle called. Ellie and Sirius turned around. 'Wait up!' she yelled. Ellie and Sirius slowed obediently.

'Where's Charlie?' Sirius asked immediately.

'Oh, with his friends. He's a bit pissed with me actually. Don't ask why,' Isobelle said. 'I'll talk to him later.'

'OK,' Sirius said. Then he ducked between Ellie and Isobelle. 'Hide me!' he pleaded. Ellie and Isobelle looked at each other.

'Katherine,' they said in unison.

Sirius moaned. 'Yes we know that. Shut up and hide me!'

'All right,' Isobelle said laughing. 'First though, stand up straight.'

'Yeah, you look like a hunchback like that,' Ellie added.

'You're great for fluffing up the old ego,' Sirius said, but straightened up all the same. Then he panicked. 'Iz, Ellie! She'll see me now!'

'Relax,' Isobelle said breezily, and took off her hat. 'Put it on,' she said, holding it out. 'Come on, it won't bite.'

''But Iz,' Sirius said. 'I never wear a hat. I don't even think I own one.'

'Exactly,' Isobelle said triumphantly. 'Sirius Black doesn't wear a hat, it's a well-known fact. So Katherine's not going to be looking for a guy in a hat is she?'

Sirius' eyes widened. 'Isobelle,' he breathed. 'You're a genius!'

'Why thank you,' Isobelle said bowing. 

Ellie elbowed her. 'Oh, shut up, you're full of yourself,' she said grinning.

'Who cares, she came up with the best idea ever,' Sirius said excitedly. 'Isobelle, thank you!' With that, he grabbed her face and kissed her on the cheek and ran off. 'Got to find James, see you!'

Not a minute after Sirius had run off, Katherine ran up to Ellie and Isobelle.

'Have you seen Sirius?' she asked desperately.

'Uh, yeah actually,' Ellie said. 'He, uh, went to the toilet. First floor, I think he said.'

Isobelle stared at Ellie, but Ellie gave a very discreet wink and Isobelle understood.

'He couldn't have said first floor,' Katherine said. 'The only toilet there is Moaning Myrtle's. A _girls' _toilet,' she added pointedly.

'Oh, really,' Ellie said disinterestedly.

'Didn't you know Katherine?' Isobelle asked in surprise. 'Sirius is in love with Moaning Myrtle and as of-' Isobelle checked her watch, '-five minutes ago, has been conducting a wild passionate affair with her.'

Ellie took one look at Isobelle's innocent face and burst out laughing. 

Katherine narrowed her eyes. 'You are _so _not funny,' she said icily.

'Oh? So you don't reckon I'd make a good stand-up comedian? _Damn_,' Isobelle said. 

Katherine shot a death look and stalked off.

'Dig my grave, I'm dying,' Isobelle muttered to Ellie, who just laughed.

As they walked into the Great Hall, Sirius re-joined them. 'I'm sitting with you two, OK?"

'Three you mean,' came Lily's voice from just behind them.

'Oh, hi Lil,' Ellie said.

'Hey Lil,' Isobelle greeted her.

'Lily! Nice of you to join us!' Sirius said exuberantly.

'Hi,' Lily said, laughing, without a shadow of her strange behaviour from earlier. 'Why do you want to sit with us?'

'James is sitting near a bunch of fifth-year girls and Katherine's sure to sit there too,' Sirius explained.

'Yeah, I think you're right, she's coming in right now,' Isobelle said, standing on tiptoes to see over the crowd. She had never liked being short.

Lily was looking at Sirius strangely. 'Shouldn't you be having a heart attack right now?' she asked. 'Won't she recognise you?'

'Not to worry,' Sirius said cheerily, pointing to Isobelle's hat on his head. 'She won't look for a guy in a hat.'

'Yeah, I noticed that. Since when do you wear a hat?' Lily asked curiously.

'Since Katherine started stalking me and I needed a disguise,' Sirius answered as he sat down.

'Wow,' Lily said, sitting down as well. 'I didn't even know you owned a hat.'

'Speaking of which,' Professor McGonagall interrupted from behind them. 'Black, hat off in the Hall.'

'But miss,' Sirius groaned.

Professor McGonagall stared at him, amazed, (she hadn't thought that he owned a hat either) but she still said. 'No buts. Hat off,' and bustled off to meet the first years.

Sirius turned to Isobelle. 'Isobelle, you're the genius. Tell me what to do.'

Isobelle thought quickly. 'Uh, a genius only has two genius thoughts a day and the rest are shite,' she said. 

'Well, what was the second genius thought?' Sirius asked.

'The one that made me tell Katherine that you were having a mad passionate affair with Moaning Myrtle,' Isobelle said with a perfectly straight face.

Ellie snorted and Lily cracked up, partly from what Isobelle had said, and partly from the look on Sirius' face.

'You what?' he whispered in disbelief. 'Isobelle, that's sick!'

'Well, it got rid of her,' Isobelle said shrugging.

'It did? Well, in that case it's great,' Sirius said brightly.

'You know she's coming over,' Ellie warned. 'And if she sees you, you know she'll insist on sitting next to you. And the hat thing's useless.'

'True,' Sirius agreed. Then he turned to them quite seriously. 'Ellie, Iz, Lily, if I hide under the table, will you feed me?'

'Are you serious?' Ellie asked.

'Yeah, I am unfortunately. If I wasn't Sirius, Katherine wouldn't be after me. So hide me,' Sirius commanded. 'And feed me,' he added.

The three girls looked at each other. 'OK,' Isobelle said.

'Wait just one second,' Lily said, and turned to Sirius. 'Right then. We feed you, you behave. We lie to Katherine about where you are on the condition that you a) break up with her tomorrow, or, b) leave us alone and deal with your problems yourself. This is the last thing we're doing for you. Got it?'

Sirius, who'd been crawling under the table, saluted. 'Yes ma'am!' he whispered.

Lily groaned. She had no idea why she'd just agreed to that.

~~~~~~

Later that night, after the feast, after everyone had gone to bed and was asleep, Lily got up. She made her way down the staircase, through the portrait hole and silently down the corridors and passageways until she found herself outside a disused classroom. She went over to the window, climbed out, sat down and looked up to the stars.

Lily had always used this roof as a refuge. It was her little corner in the castle, somewhere she felt safe. It was a good place to think too. She'd often gone there last year when the craziness of studying drove her mad. But she'd never cried there.

She did that night. And after she'd gone back to her dorm, she cried there too. Cried herself to sleep. Ellie woke up early and could still see the wet patches on Lily's pillow. She didn't know what was wrong, but sure as hell, something was not right.

I am very, very, very, very times a million, sorry that I have taken so long to write this chapter. With a combination of writer's block, assignments, speech and drama exams, and fan fiction being down, I have just not gotten around to writing it. But hey! It's finished, so just read and tell me what you think. I know what's happening in the next chapter, so I'm hoping I'll get it up a bit sooner, but you never know.

__

DISCLAIMER: Isobelle and Annabelle Harris, Marianne Baker, Charles (Charlie) Donaldson, Ellie, Charlotte and Cameron Parker, Orla Black, Monica, Lucy and Katie Green belong to me. Katherine doesn't really belong to me, as I've based her on a friend of mine who's slightly less obsessed with Sirius. The song 'Back to School' belongs to the movie 'Billy Madison'. Everything else belongs to JK Rowling. Tootles!


	8. Actions and Consequences

****

Before They Bloomed ~ Chapter Eight

Actions and Consequences

__

Learn to keep the pain you feel

Keep it in don't let it spill

Under lock and key don't let it out

That's what secrecy's about.

Make it all right, keep your eyes shut

Keep your eyes shut tight

What you feel ain't bad

Cos there's no shame, 

There's no shame in being sad.

****

'Real People (SAD)' ~ KILLING HEIDI

Over the next few days, Lily seemed different. Not on the outside; she laughed and joked, but if you caught her off-guard, she was silent and distant. And Ellie couldn't help wondering why she always looked so tired.

Typically, the only people who noticed Lily's strangeness were Ellie and James. Ellie tried to talk to Isobelle about it, but Isobelle said she was being paranoid, plus she had her own problems, and James didn't talk to anyone because he knew (a) they'd tease him, and (b) they wouldn't listen to him anyway, so what was the point?

So they both took to watching her carefully, and that was how Ellie realised that Lily was sneaking out of the dorm every night. She told James this, and one night, James was suffering from insomnia and was reading in the common room. While he was doing this, he saw Lily sneak out the portrait hole. So he followed her.

~~~~~~

Isobelle groaned as she hauled herself up the stairs at eleven o'clock at night. Oh how much she hated History of Magic essays. What she would do for Professor Binns to die!

'And where have you been dear?' the Fat Lady enquired.

'Library,' Isobelle answered, smothering a huge yawn. 'Had to do an essay. Can you let me in?'

'Password?' the Fat Lady queried.

'Uh…' Oh how Isobelle hated that pathetic excuse for a Head Girl, Megan Phillips. It was her fault the Fat Lady kept changing the password. 'What about Megan Phillips must die?' 

The Fat Lady shook her head. 'Try again dear.'

'What about Snape is a creep?' Isobelle tried.

The Fat Lady shook her head again.

'Megan Phillips is an airhead who should never been put in Gryffindor who should never have been made Head Girl, and should definitely never, _ever_ have decided that we needed to change the passwords at least once a week just because of _one stupid Slytherin almost discovering the tower!_' Isobelle yelled at the Fat Lady.

The Fat Lady, having been yelled at more than once during the past week and getting used to it, just shook her head again. Isobelle kicked the wall.

It was likely that Isobelle would have been there all night, had Remus not come along. 'Having a little trouble?' he asked.

'Oh, only a little,' Isobelle answered sarcastically. 'Honestly, I don't see what the big deal is! So what if a Slytherin nearly discovered where our common room is? It's not as if we don't know where _their's_ is!'

Remus laughed. 'Hey, I'll do a bargain with you, OK? You do something for me, I'll give you the password.'

'What do I have to do?' Isobelle asked suspiciously.

'Well, Sirius wants someone to fly down to the broomshed, get his broom and bring it up to our dorm,' Remus said quickly. 'And since you're a good flier and you keep your broom in your dorm, Sirius suggested you.'

'Why can't he use the stairs like everyone else?' Isobelle asked irritably. She really wanted to get out of the cold hallway.

'Oh. Well, erm, there's a little problem with that. Katherine's camped at the foot of the staircase and she's a really light sleeper. We tried to get down earlier and she woke up. Lucky she didn't see Sirius,' Remus explained.

'Why can't James do it?' Isobelle asked. 'He's the best flier in the whole school.'

'He doesn't keep his broom in his dorm either, and anyway, he's not even _in _the dorm,' Remus said.

Isobelle sighed and switched to another tactic. 'Remus, I'll be dead if I'm seen, not to mention the rumours that'll fly around.'

'Oh, please,' Remus begged, dropping to one knee. 'He's driving us mad! Please, oh please, do this for us Isobelle.'

Isobelle sighed. On one hand, she didn't want to go for a fly after writing a History of Magic essay, especially at eleven o'clock at night, and _especially _just because Sirius couldn't figure out his love life. But on the other hand, she wanted to get into the tower.

'This is blackmail you know,' she grumbled finally.

Remus grinned. 'I take it that that means that you'll do it?'

'Yes, but only because I don't want to spend the night in the hallway,' Isobelle said begrudgingly. 

'The password's _Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious_,' Remus said.

The portrait hole swung open.

Isobelle gave the Fat Lady a look. 'What on _earth_ possessed you to make up _that_ password?' she asked in disgust.

'Oh I didn't dearie, Megan suggested it,' the Fat Lady said, yawning. 

'Argh,' Isobelle said, and realised that she had no choice but to climb through the portrait hole. So she did, Remus chuckling after her.

Ten minutes later she was flying to the broomshed, thinking how ridiculous Sirius Black was and how pathetic Katherine McDonald was. And why did Sirius _have _to leave his broom in the _shed_? Honestly, the whole world was completely _barmy_.

~~~~~~

Caitlin McInytre could be nice. She really thought she could be. She really thought she was, which shows how delusional she really was. She was one of those types of people felt that they always had to meddle in other people's lives, and not always for the good, though she did _try_.

Anyway, her most recent project was saving Charlie Donaldson from Isobelle Harris, the latter Caitlin believed should have been residing in a home for the mentally ill, and Caitlin thought it was absolutely disgusting that Charlie, a very eligible Ravenclaw, was wasting his time on that psychotic headcase waste of space of a Gryffindor Isobelle Harris. But it was nothing _personal_ of course. 

The only thing was, she was having a few problems getting enough dirt on Isobelle to make Charlie dump her. So far, all she'd found that could be even _remotely _of use was a kiss on the cheek that Sirius Black had given Isobelle first day back. Of course, that could be blown out of proportions, but it still wasn't much.

'What I need is something big,' she mused thoughtfully as she paced the Ravenclaw common room at ten past eleven one night. 'Come on Caitlin, think!'

'Don't strain yourself,' Calista Browning said dryly, entering the room from the tapestry opening. 

'Where have _you _been?' Caitlin asked imperiously.

'For a walk,' was all Calista would say. 'What are you still up for?'

'I couldn't sleep, one of the fifth years was snoring,' Caitlin said airily.

Calista snorted. 'Haven't you ever heard of a silencing charm? Or, if you were too lazy to move, earplugs?'

'If you know so much, do it yourself, smarty-pants,' Caitlin said defensively.

'All right then, I will,' Calista announced, grabbing Caitlin's arm and proceeding to drag her up the stairs to the dormitories. The snoring became apparent almost immediately.

'See?' Caitlin exclaimed. 'It's impossible to sleep with that!'

'Oh, it's not that bad. If you have the door closed you shouldn't hear it,' Calista said practically.

'I _did _have the door closed,' Caitlin protested.

'I never said you didn't,' Calista said calmly. 'It's weird though, no one else has woken up.'

'I'm a very light sleeper, as you should know,' Caitlin explained.

Calista sighed. 'Come on,' she said,' she said, leading Caitlin into their dormitory. 'You go to bed and I'll shut up whoever it is.'

'Do you know who it is?' Caitlin asked as she walked past Sarah Rowan's bed and got into her own.

'Probably Bernadette Rollins, she's got a bad cold,' Calista said, then frowned. 'Is it just me or is it hot in here?'

'Oh _why_ doesn't she just go and see Madam Pomfrey?' Caitlin whined, then let out a cry of protest. 'Calista! What are you doing?'

For Calista was opening the windows. 'It's hot,' she shrugged.

'Calista!' Caitlin moaned. '_It's cold!_'

'No it's not, it's only September,' Calista said reasonably. 'I'm going to shut up whoever's snoring now, but _don't_ shut the windows,' she warned as she left.

The minute the door shut, Caitlin lept out of bed and went over to the window closest to her bed, intending to shut it. She didn't quite get that far though, as she leant out the window (for a breath of fresh air) she caught sight of a person. On a broomstick. Near Gryffindor Tower. And this person, though it was hard to tell at such a distance, looked suspiciously like - 

'Isobelle?' Caitlin said curiously. 'What's she doing flying around this late at night?' 

She ran over to Calista's trunk and rummaged through it, looking for her binoculars. She looked through them at the figure. Yes, it was definitely Isobelle. But no, wait, she'd gone in the window. Caitlin sighed in exasperation. She'd give her five minutes to come out again. She tapped her fingers against the sill. This was so incredibly boring. She sighed again, mentally cursing Isobelle, completely ignoring the fact that her spying on Isobelle was completely her own choice, therefore, if she was bored, it was her own fault. But you know, that was Caitlin.

Ah wait, now something was happening. Isobelle was finally coming out the window. And she wasn't alone. Sirius Black was accompanying her. And hugging her. And was it her imagination or did that hug look more than a little friendly? Caitlin grinned. Looked as if her project wasn't going to be as hard as it had seemed. Now if she could just catch a kiss the whole thing would be in the bag.

'Caitlin, what are you doing?' Calista asked from the doorway. 'And aren't those my binoculars?'

Caitlin jumped and turned around guiltily. 'Uh, I'm birwatching,' she lied unconvincingly as she pulled the window shut. 'But I can't see any.'

'Oh, you don't say,' Calista said sarcastically, getting into her own bed. 'You have to be one of the strangest people I know. Now shut up and go to bed will you, I want to get some sleep.'

Caitlin ignored her. Who cared what Calista Browning thought?

~~~~~~

'So, what did you want your broom for then?' Isobelle asked once she was in the boys' dormitory.

'So I could go swimming, what do you think, you twit,' Sirius said grinning.

Isobelle rolled her eyes. 'OK, new question. Why do you want to go flying at eleven thirty at night?'

Sirius shrugged. 'Claustrophobia.'

'Wow, I'm surprised you know what that means,' Isobelle teased.

'Oh, he's not as dumb as he looks,' Remus informed her.

'Dumb? I look dumb? I _do not_ look dumb,' Sirius protested. 

'Whatever you say,' Isobelle said grinning.

'Sod this, I'm going for a fly.' Sirius grabbed his broom and went to fly out the window.

'Hey wait,' Isobelle called.

'I thought you wanted to go to bed,' Remus commented.

'That was before you made me fly to the broomshed and back,' Isobelle explained. 'Now I'm awake and I couldn't go to sleep if you paid me. I feel like I've eaten a whole box of chocolate frogs.'

'Are you coming or not?' Sirius called from the window.

'Does a dog bark?' Isobelle responded.

'Yep, woof, woof,' Sirius said, then he and Remus laughed. Isobelle looked at them strangely, and Sirius realised that since she didn't know about the Animagus thing, she had absolutely no idea what they were laughing at, and as a result, Sirius felt quite stupid indeed. 'Private joke,' he muttered. 'Let's go.'

'OK,' Isobelle said. 'Remus, want to come?'

'Ah, no thanks,' Remus said quickly. 'I'm not that great with heights, you know that.'

'Oh yeah,' Isobelle said, remembering the last experience Remus had had with flying. It hadn't been a pretty sight, and for once his claims of being in the hospital wing had proved true. 'You could ride on the back of my broom,' she suggested.

'No, I'll pass,' Remus said. 'Flying and I do not mix.'

Isobelle shrugged. 'OK,' she said, and without any warning at all, she shot out the window, whizzing past Sirius, still waiting.

'Isobelle!' Sirius complained as he flew out after her. Isobelle laughed and flew over to him and gave him a hug. 'Oh, you know you love me,' she said mischievously. 'Race you to the big oak near the Quidditch pitch!'

'The one Annabelle fell out of?' Sirius asked.

'The one and only!' she called back.

~~~~~~

'Lily?' came a voice from the window sill.

Lily looked back at the window quickly, wiping her face to brush away the tears. 'What are you doing here Potter?' she asked tiredly, turning her head to look at James.

James was shocked at how pale and tired and _old _Lily looked, but said simply, 'Following you.'

'Why?' Lily asked coldly.

'We've been worried about you,' James said casually, seeing that Lily wasn't in the mood for bullshit, nor was he willing to give it.

'We?' Lily raised an eyebrow.

'Ellie and I,' James elaborated. 'You haven't been acting like yourself,' he said as he climbed over the windowsill and walked out onto the roof.

Lily fixed her sight on the Whomping Willow. 'Like you'd know,' she said bitingly, trying to insult him.

'Ellie would,' he said calmly, just a few feet behind her. Lily didn't answer, just kept staring at the Whomping Willow, so James kept going. 'And she did and she told me, and when I saw you sneak out tonight, I followed you. I wasn't going to say anything, but when you started crying I had to. So what's wrong?' he asked, edging forward until he was next to her.

This gesture annoyed Lily and she turned and looked him properly in the face for the first time. 'Not that it's any of your business Potter,' she spat, 'but my parents died over the holidays, so forgive me for feeling a tad bit upset, will you?' She turned away from him, her face burning with anger.

James stood up. 'I'm sorry to hear it,' he said quietly.

'Yeah?' Lily said sarcastically. 'Well that's bloody terrific.'

'Yeah,' James said. 'And I'm also sorry that we can't be friends.'

His tone shocked Lily a bit; it was so grim. And she'd never seen his deep blue eyes look so hard and cold, like pieces of ice. But still she said, 'Whatever Potter. You've heard what you came here to hear, so why don't you just bugger off and leave me in peace?'

James flushed. 'Gladly,' he said coldly, and he turned and walked back to the windowsill, climbed over it and disappeared into the castle.

Lily watched him go, wishing with all her heart she could call him back, but pride wouldn't let her. Pride was what kept her staring into the sky, pretending she didn't give a flying banana.

But deep, deep down, she did. Even if she didn't think so.

~~~~~~

'We should do this more often!' Isobelle yelled to Sirius as they zoomed along on their broomsticks through the cool night air.

'Yeah! We should!' Sirius yelled back. 'Last one to the tree's a rotten egg!'

'Prepare to be boiled Black!' Isobelle yelled.

'Oh yeah? Well, prepare to be thrown out!' Sirius retorted.

Isobelle laughed and zipped towards the tree, Sirius hot on her heels. When they got there, an onlooker might have claimed that they reached the tree at the same time, but Isobelle would always maintain that she reached the tree a millisecond before Sirius and Sirius would always maintain that it was _he_ who reached the tree a millisecond earlier.

'Ah, that was great fun,' Isobelle said, laughing as she sat on a thick branch next to Sirius. 'I can't wait until Quidditch starts again.'

'Don't worry, James'll have it started before you can say "Slytherins are a bunch of dirty, rotten, cheating, lying scumbags who aren't going to win the Quidditch cup because Gryffindor is going to kick their butts again,"' Sirius reassured her.

'I didn't get to fly a heap during the holidays,' Isobelle said regretfully, swinging her legs back and forth. 'I couldn't fly at Lily's cos she's a Muggle-born, and I didn't feel like it the first time I went home and the second time I went home I was too busy packing, and at James' place - well, you know what his mum's like.'

'Yep,' Sirius said. 'Absolutely petrified that we're all going to fall off mid-flight and break our necks.'

They both laughed then and Isobelle thought of something.

'Hey, did you know that Marianne likes James?' she asked mischievously.

Sirius did a double-take. 'What?' he said, not believing his own ears. 'No way! You're kidding right?' He began to laugh.

Isobelle shook her head. 'Uh-uh. She's been debating whether or not to ask him out; I heard her and Anna talking the day before school started.' She turned to Sirius, her eyes full of a dangerous sparkle. 'What do you think would happen if she did?' 

'What, if she asked him out?' Sirius asked. Isobelle nodded and Sirius frowned a little as he thought about it. 'I think he'd say yes, you know,' he said, after a while. 'I mean, he hasn't been out with anyone since Beth, and that ended pretty badly, with him dumping her on -'

'Valentine's Day, I know,' Isobelle interrupted with a heavy sigh. 'That was definitely not one of his better career moves.'

'Yeah, and since the whole Caitlin thing,' Sirius said, suddenly grinning, 'I think people are beginning to think he's gay.'

Isobelle stared a Sirius for a full second before bursting into giggles. 'That's got to be the biggest load of rubbish I've ever heard in my life!'

Sirius shrugged. 'Michelle Reid asked me if he was, and I'm thinking that unless he dates some girls quickly, his reputation is in for a lot of damage.'

'Yes, you're definitely right,' Isobelle said, trying not to laugh, but not succeeding, bursting into laughter again. 'Michelle said that?' she squeaked amid peals of laughter. 'Oh that is so _funny_!'

~~~~~~

Ellie opened her eyes slowly and found herself staring into the deep blue eyes of James Potter. 'Wake up,' he was saying.

'Far out James,' Ellie said, rubbing her eyes, 'it's what, midnight? One o'clock? What are you doing?' She glared at him, wanting to throw a pillow at him, but as that required far too much energy, she decided not to. 

James ignored her grumbling and went straight to the point. 'I found out why Lily's been sneaking off and I know she'll be back in the tower soon and I want you to go and wait in the common room for her,' he said, expressionless. 'I think she needs some TLC and I'm not waiting for her, she'll kill me on sight.'

At James' words, she got up quickly and pulled on her dressing gown and slippers. 'Right, I'm on it,' she said, smothering a big yawn. 'Sorry, she said sheepishly, and she and James walked towards the door trying not to wake anyone up. When they reached the door though, Ellie thought of something. 

'James, you said she'd kill you on sight. What did you say to her?' she asked curiously.

James' eyes darkened. 'She's not angry at me so much as angry at herself for letting her guard down, so I guess she took her anger out on me because I saw her crying and because she hates me that humiliated her.' James shrugged. 'I don't know.'

'How do you know that she won't get angry at me?' Ellie asked as they walked down the stairs.

'Easy,' James said shrugging. 'She doesn't hate you, you're her best friend.' He stuck his hands in his pockets and looked moodily at the ground.

'James,' Ellie said softly. 'Lily doesn't hate you, you know. She just thinks she does, that's all.'

'Yeah?' James said moodily. 'Well that doesn't help much does it?' He stepped into the common room. 'Just wait here,' he said tersely, and made towards the boys' dormitories.

'Goodnight James,' Ellie called after him as she sat down.

James turned around for a brief second, a sombre expression on his face. 'Yeah. Goodnight,' he said sadly, his eyes looking hurt, then made his way up the stairs.

Ellie watched him go and felt an irrepressible urge to kick Lily, for whatever she'd said to him to put him in such a depressed mood, and put that look in his eyes, and she quite likely might have done if Lily had not come in just at that moment, looking like an absolute wreck.

Ellie got up quickly. 'Lily?'

Lily turned to look at her. 'Oh, hi,' she said as she wiped her face with the back of her hand, looking none too happy to see her. 'What are you doing up?'

Ellie opened her mouth to answer, but Lily held up a hand. 'Oh, no wait, don't answer, I think I already know. James?' she said bitterly.

Ellie nodded. Lily shook her head in disgust. 'Typical. Why can't he mind his own business for once? Totally, bloody -'

'Oh, shut up Lily,' Ellie interrupted. 'So James told me he'd seen you sneak off and he followed you. So what?' she asked angrily. 'Only a true friend would do that! He was _worried_ about you. As was _I_. Now, are you going to tell me what's wrong, or should I just kick you like I was going to do before you came in?'

Lily had never seen her friend this fierce and quite frankly, it scared her. 'Why were you going to kick me?' she asked timidly.

'Because James came in looking like his best friend had died, that's why,' Ellie said, looking Lily firmly in the eye. 'Do you want to go for a walk? To talk?'

Lily nodded and firmly shoved what Ellie had said about James to the back of her mind so she wouldn't have to think about it.

~~~~~~

'So, getting them together,' Sirius mused. 'How would that work?' 

He and Isobelle were still sitting on their branch, their brooms hovering beside them as they discussed the potential for a relationship between Marianne Baker and James Potter.

'I think it'd work pretty well,' Isobelle said, pushing a tendril of her hair behind her ear. 'All you'd have to do would be to tell James and persuade him to pursue her. I mean, he doesn't hate her or anything, in fact he thinks she's pretty nice.'

'And she's pretty,' Sirius added.

'Is that all you boys care about? Looks?' Isobelle asked in disgust.

'Hmm,' Sirius said, pretending to think. 'Well, good looks is definitely a pre-requisite. And then there's smart and obedient, so they can do our homework without complaining.' He ducked Isobelle's hand.

'Like you need anyone to do your homework for you,' she scoffed. 'Honestly, I don't know how you and James do it! You muck around every lesson, you do your homework in about five seconds if you do it at all, you never go to the library and you never study, instead, spending all your time thinking of pranks to pull and you still get the best marks of the whole year!'

'And that's bad?' Sirius enquired.

'Yes! It's absolutely disgusting!' Isobelle exclaimed.

Sirius laughed. 'Shh. You'll wake the whole castle up.'

'Shut up,' Isobelle hissed. 'Someone's coming.'

Sirius turned and looked into the direction Isobelle was pointing. There were definitely two people coming and they looked strangely like … Lily and Ellie. Sirius and Isobelle turned and looked at each other, questioningly. What on earth were Lily and Ellie doing there?

~~~~~~

'So why were you crying?' Ellie asked once they were out in the grounds.

Lily's eyebrows shot up in surprise. 'You mean he didn't tell you?'

'No,' Ellie said, giving Lily a searching glance, but Lily's face revealed nothing. Ellie couldn't figure out why Lily hated James so much. Before she, Isobelle, Remus and Sirius had intervened, Lily had been getting to know James and getting to like him; Ellie couldn't figure out how James kissing Lily had made her hate him. It was the biggest mystery in her books, even bigger than the mystery of why Severus Snape didn't wash his hair.

'Oh,' Lily said flatly. 'Do you want to sit down then?' she said, as a way of stalling. 'There's that stone bench over there, under the oak.'

Ellie nodded, and they walked over to the bench in silence.

'So, what's wrong? Spit it out already,' Ellie said impatiently.

'Mum and Dad got killed in a car crash over the holidays,' Lily said listlessly, staring out into the distance.

Ellie gaped at her. 'And you didn't tell us, _why,_ exactly?

'Yeah, why didn't you tell us?' Sirius asked, climbing down from the tree.

'Yeah, we _are_ your best friends,' Isobelle added, following Sirius out of the tree. 'Oh God, Lil, I'm so sorry.' She gave the very confused Lily a hug.

Lily and Ellie stared at Isobelle and Sirius. 'What are you doing here?' Ellie asked finally.

'We went for a fly and then we were talking. We kind of overheard,' Sirius explained, then put a hand on Lily's shoulder. 'I'm really sorry Lil.'

'Don't be,' Lily said, brushing his hand off. 'You didn't do anything.'

'Oh, shut up Lily,' Ellie said. 'It's all right! Your parents have died, for heaven's sake. People are allowed to feel sorry for you.' She gave Lily a hug as well.

'Group hug!' Sirius said, and he and Isobelle put their arms around Lily.

'OK, on the count of three, we all have to say "we're sorry for you", OK?' Ellie said, blue eyes twinkling. 'One, two -'

'No, don't,' Lily began, but it was too late.

'Three!'

'We're sorry for you!' Isobelle, Ellie and Sirius shouted.

Lily smiled. 'Shush, you'll wake the whole castle up.'

Sirius let go of her. 'Ah ha! We got you smiling!'

Despite herself, Lily laughed. 'I guess you did.'

'So why didn't you tell us?' Isobelle asked.

Lily shrugged. 'It's not really the sort of thing that comes up in conversation is it?' 

'No, but we're your friends, not Caitlin McIntyre,' Isobelle reminded her.

Lily nodded. 'True,' she agreed, 'but it wasn't like that. I just didn't want to talk about it. I think I still have this tiny little shred of hope that makes me think that this whole thing's a dream and I'm going to wake up soon, and see that they're still here and alive. Talking about the fact that they're dead makes it seem too real.'

'So, erm, how did they die?' Sirius asked quietly, looking a little uncomfortable.

Lily started playing with her long red hair. 'We were on the way to Yvonne's place to pick up Petunia. We were having an argument, and then, then there was this flash of red, and I screamed at Dad to look out and then everything turned black.' She brushed her eyes quickly, as if trying to stop tears from flowing. Sirius put an arm around her.

'Do you know who hit you?' Ellie asked softly.

Lily nodded. 'Yeah, some drunk on the way home from a party. He hit us and Dad died instantly and Mum and I were in a coma for a week, and then I woke up and she died. I was in hospital for another week, for observation, then I went home.' Lily twisted her hands around. 'We're living with our aunt Monica now.'

There was a silence, and Ellie leant over and put her arm around Lily as well.

'So that's why you never answered any of my letters,' Isobelle realised suddenly.

'What?' Lily asked.

'Oh, I sent a few owls to you after I left your place, and my owl kept coming home with the letter unopened, and I was a bit worried,' Isobelle explained.

Sirius snorted. 'A _bit _worried? That's the understatement of the year.'

Isobelle glared at him. 'Don't say a word.' 

Sirius laughed, and Ellie and Lily looked puzzled. However, Lily still said, 'Why don't we go inside now? I think I'm fine now, and we've got classes tomorrow.'

Sirius groaned. 'We've got Potions tomorrow. Yuk.'

'We do?' Isobelle asked. 'Oops, I forgot about that. I haven't done my homework.'

Everyone laughed, and as they all linked arms, with broomsticks hovering in front of them, Lily realised what great friends she really had.

~~~~~~

Isobelle was late. She'd overslept and she was still tired. After drinking three cups of coffee at breakfast, she'd realised that she'd left her Transfiguration homework in her dorm, so she'd had to go all the way back to Gryffindor Tower to get it, and now, unless there was some major miracle, she was going to be late.

'Isobelle,' Charlie called from behind her. Isobelle turned around, annoyed, but then happy when she saw who it was. She could be late for Transfiguration to talk to him for a second. 

'Hi Charlie,' she said smiling. She kissed him on the cheek. 'Are we still on for Saturday? At Hogsmeade?'

Charlie didn't respond, looking preoccupied.

'Charlie?' she prompted, noticing his grim manner. She took his hand, but he immediately freed it of her grasp. She looked at him, shocked and confused.

'Isobelle, we need to talk,' he said.

'What, now?' she asked. 'We've got class. And I'm going to be late'

'Sod class, we're talking now,' Charlie said grimly, and led Isobelle to a disused classroom. Isobelle followed him, bewildered.

'This had better be good,' she warned. 'I'm missing Transfiguration. McGonagall's going to have a fit.'

Charlie ignored her. 'During the holidays, you stayed at James' place, didn't you?' 

'Yes,' Isobelle answered, very puzzled. 'I told you that.'

'Yes you did,' Charlie said absently. 'But did you tell me that Sirius was staying there as well? No, I don't think so …' 

'Is it your business where Sirius stays in the holidays?' Isobelle asked, wondering what on earth was going on. 'Yes, Sirius was there, James is his best friend, for heaven's sake. But why should you care? You hate Sirius and have done ever since that time in second year when he put frogspawn soap in some of the bathrooms and you had green hands and face for three days. But, um, anyway,' she said quickly, seeing his face darken, 'I still don't see what this has to do with anything.' 

When he said nothing, just glared at her, she began to feel a little worried. She didn't think she'd done anything wrong, so she asked, 'Charlie, are you all right? You're acting a bit strange.'

Charlie ignored her, instead saying, 'Isobelle, are you two-timing me?'

Isobelle stared at him like he had three heads. 'Charlie, what are you talking about? I'm with you. And just who …' her voice trailed off as all the pieces of the puzzle fell together. 'Oh I get it,' she said angrily. 'You think I'm cheating on you with Sirius. That's what all this thing with Sirius staying at James' place, isn't it?' She gave him a look of disgust. 'How dare you. How dare you make such accusations without proof?' Her eyes were ablaze with fury, but her voice was deadly calm.

'Ah, but I have proof,' Charlie said smoothly. 'And eyewitnesses.'

'What?' Isobelle asked in disbelief. Then she laughed. 'Eyewitnesses to an affair that I can't even remember having. God this is a joke.' She fixed Charlie with a piercing look. 'So, why don't you tell me what you little eyewitnesses saw? Maybe it'll jog my memory.' Her last words were dripping with sarcasm, but Charlie pretended not to notice.

'Someone told me they saw you and Sirius holding hands in Diagon Alley before school started,' he began.

Isobelle felt a stab of irritation and anger run through her. She couldn't believe she was standing there, having to explain herself because of her friendships. 'Holding hands with Sirius _and _James because I was dragging them somewhere,' she said angrily, 'on account of the fact that we are verygood_ friends_!'

This frank confession (if you could call it that) caught Charlie off-guard, but he kept going. 'Then on the first day of school, someone else saw him kiss you.'

'On the cheek and only because he was incredibly grateful and happy, happy being something I'm _not_ at the moment,' Isobelle said furiously, balling her hands into fists.

Charlie, still undeterred, though a little doubtful, said 'And last night, someone saw you and Sirius go for a midnight broom flight.'

Isobelle stared at him, disgusted beyond any belief. She couldn't believe this was the guy she'd thought was perfect since April. 'God, do you have your own little spy ring or something? Do you treat all your girlfriends like this? Aren't we allowed to have male friends?' she shouted, the angriest she'd been for a long time.

Charlie held up a hand. 'Hold on, I just wanted to get the facts straight. I'd heard some stuff and I wanted to hear if it was true, and it's obviously -'

'Oh, _sod_ that,' Isobelle spat. 'You believed all the rubbish you heard, you still believe it, and you came here with the full intention of dumping me, didn't you? Don't lie to me, Charlie Donaldson, _I'm not stupid_.' 

'Is that all you have to say?' Charlie asked, deliberately avoiding her accusations.

Isobelle gave him a look of contempt. 'No actually, I've got two more things to say. One, Sirius and I are friends, no more, no less, always have been, always will be, and two, you're dumped. We're over.' With that, she slapped his cheek and stormed out.

She only got to the corner before the tears started to fall. She wiped them back angrily; it wasn't worth crying for a bastard like him. Instead, she concentrated on getting to Transfiguration, making a stop in the girls' toilets to wash her face so she didn't look too bad.

The minute she walked into the classroom, Professor McGonagall barked, 'Isobelle Harris, you're half an hour late, where on earth have you been?'

Isobelle turned around slowly. 'Um … I - I couldn't find my book, professor,' she said slowly, as though trying to figure out what she was doing there in the first place. Maybe McGonagall noticed that, maybe it was the slightly bloodshot eyes, or maybe it was the vacant look, but whatever it was, McGonagall noticed something was wrong and simply sent Isobelle to her seat without any further reprimands, no points from Gryffindor, and continued teaching, something that the whole class believed was unheard of. 

Isobelle didn't notice anyone's strange looks, or anything much really, as she made her way to her seat, and she sat there in her own fog of thoughts for the whole lesson, and she didn't even hear the bell ring.

'Isobelle.' Professor McGonagall was beside her, and calling her by her first name, which was a mark of her worry for the girl. 'Isobelle,' she said again when she didn't respond. 'Are you all right? The bell's gone.'

Isobelle looked at her as if she'd just woken up from a deep sleep. 'It has?' she said thickly. 'Oh … right then …'

'Isobelle, are you all right?' Professor McGonagall asked again.

'Um, no actually, I don't think I am,' Isobelle said slowly. 'Professor, can I go up to my dormitory until lunchtime? I need … to think.'

'All right then,' McGonagall said nodding. 'But back after lunch, you understand?'

Isobelle nodded gratefully and, feeling angry and betrayed, made her escape to her dormitory where she could shut out the rest of the world.

~~~~~~

Sirius was cornered. He was trapped like a wild dog. Katherine McDonald had finally caught up with him, and was advancing towards him fast. He braced himself for the rib-breaking hug that was sure to come … but it didn't. Instead, she slapped him.

'Ow!' he howled indignantly, holding his cheek. 'What was that for?'

'Three things,' Katherine said sweetly, 'Not writing to me, not talking to me and cheating on me.'

'Cheating? What! Katherine, I -'

'Don't even try to deny it,' she interrupted, her voice hardening. 'Caitlin McIntyre told me.'

'What? Katherine, don't listen to anything that girl says, I swear she's whacked, she's off the planet, she's completely barmy, she doesn't know what the hell she's talking about,' Sirius informed her, but then thought of something. 'And anyway, even if I was two-timing you with Isobelle, how would Caitlin know?'

'She said Charlie Donaldson told her,' Katherine said disinterestedly. 'He reckons Isobelle admitted it, and they've broken up.' She inspected her fingernails. 'But can we get on with this? I came here to dump you and I've got Charms in ten minutes, plus Keeley will be wondering where I am.'

Sirius ignored this last bit and instead focussed on the Isobelle and Charlie break up. 'Wow,' he said. 'Isobelle and Charlie. Didn't see that coming. No wonder she was such a wreck this morning.' He grinned at Katherine. 'I'm sorry, were you saying something?'

'Would you just shut up and let me dump you?' Katherine asked, tapping her foot. 'Because that's what I came here to do.'

'Oh, all right then,' Sirius said. 'But if you don't mind me asking, why the sudden change of heart?' 

'Oh,' Katherine said dismissively. 'I got sick of you. I could never find you, and talking to your friends was like talking to brick walls. And then came this Isobelle thing, so I've decided we're finished.' She shrugged. 'Any questions?'

Sirius stared at her. Katherine was dumping him? Something was very wrong here. But who cared anyway? She was getting rid of his problem, so why was he complaining?

Katherine blinked at him. 'I take that as a no,' she said flatly. 'So, erm, it's been nice going out with you and all, and you were the best kisser I've ever known,' she said a bit wistfully, 'but it's time for our parting of ways, so you're dumped. Goodbye.' She gave him a hug, then left, leaving Sirius to ponder the strange happenings of the last few minutes.

'It's a strange, strange world,' he muttered to himself as he picked up his bag and headed to Potions.

Oh my God, that was a marathon. Sorry it took so long, but I've been away, and I wrote the whole thing out longhand, then typed it up on the computer. I'll try to have the next one out soon, but I'm not sure if that will happen because school starts again on Thursday. I'm a big grade ten now! But I still don't want to go. Yuk. 

But anyway, this chapter's done, and I'd love everyone to tell me what they think! So please be darlings and just review.

On a finishing note, I feel rather dizzy. We have a lovely new swivel chair, but I've been spinning around for too long, and now I feel dizzy. I really shouldn't do this. Oh yuk, I feel sick …

__

DISCLAIMER: Elizabeth Parker, Caitlin McIntyre, Isobelle and Annabelle Harris, Marianne Baker, Calista Browning, Sarah Rowan, Charles Donaldson, Megan Phillips, Michelle Reid and Bernadette Rollins belong to me. Katherine McDonald and her friend Keeley belong to themselves. The song 'Real People (SAD)' belongs to Killing Heidi. Anything else belongs to the supreme author of the universe (second only to Isobelle Carmody; ducks flying tomatoes!). Don't sue me, cos I'm broke. Toodles!


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